A small nameless room—where colorful clothes and tiny shoes were arranged with deep love. A new guest was scheduled to arrive on Earth next month, and Arpita Das, a 26-year-old teacher from Patharghata, was eagerly counting down the days to hear the word "Mother" for the first time. But an invisible bite, a mild fever, and a rapid drop in blood platelets shattered every dream in an instant. Amid the mechanical sounds of the Intensive Care Unit and the desperate efforts of doctors, she could not be saved. As the mother's heartbeat stopped, the heartbeat of the innocent child inside her womb was silenced forever. Where a family was supposed to hear the arrival of a new life, there is now only lamentation and mourning.

This tragic scene belongs not just to a single family; today, thousands of such painful stories have spread across the entire country. One fresh life after another is being extinguished by the bite of Aedes mosquitoes, and the country's air grows heavy with the cries of the bereaved. Desperate people crowd hospital corridors and the fronts of ICUs every day. This procession of death seems unwilling to stop.

According to recent data from the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), the number of dengue cases in the country has already crossed 50,000, reaching 50,276. Meanwhile, 143 people have lost their lives to this deadly disease. On official balance sheets, these are merely numbers, but behind every single digit lies a family and a halted future. The list of the deceased also includes an innocent child aged between six and ten years. Although on paper the mortality rate between men and women is almost equal, individual families are being completely ruined while trying to cope with the shock of these deaths.

While the situation remained somewhat calm during the first few months of the current year, the dengue graph has been rising steadily since the arrival of the monsoon. After 13 deaths in June, 36 in July, and 43 in August, the month of September has turned out to be even more relentless. In this current month alone, 46 people have succumbed to death so far. On September 8 alone, a single-day record of 9 people died, while 1,571 patients were admitted to hospitals.

Although the casualty count is highest under Dhaka South City Corporation, this toxic grip has now spread nationwide. The ravages of dengue are also escalating in Khulna, Mymensingh, Barishal, and Chattogram. In Chattogram, the tragic death of the expectant mother Arpita Das recently left the entire city grief-stricken. Due to death review procedures and paperwork complexities within the health department, many names might be added to the statistics late, but the battle for life and death continues unabated from hospital ICUs to general wards. In the last 24 hours, another 1,056 people have been admitted to hospitals. Although 46,699 individuals have recovered and returned home so far, thousands of patients are still groaning in hospital wards. Intravenous drip stands hanging overhead and relatives rushing about with desperate pleas for blood—this has become the daily scene at most public and private hospitals across the country.

Stopping these tears is impossible through government cleanliness announcements or statistical ledgers alone. Unless personal awareness and collective resistance are built to guard against Aedes mosquitoes, no one knows where this procession of premature deaths will end. How many unborn lives will wither away before ever seeing the light of day, and how many mothers will lose their children—today, there is no one to answer.

Author: Dr. Abul Hasnat Milton, Journalist, Political Analyst, and Editor-in-Chief, The Source News Bangla