The High Court has ordered the authorities concerned to take measures to establish a Vector Control Research Centre (VCRC) to conduct studies on pesticides, equipment used to control disease-carrying mosquitoes and their pathogenesis.
It coincides with the country`s worst-ever dengue outbreak.
The bench of Justice JBM Hasan and Justice Raziq Al Jalil passed the order on Sunday, disposing of a rule seeking protection from the mosquito menace at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.
Petitioner Tanveer Ahmed, a lawyer at the apex court, said that by responding to the call of the court, Jahangirnagar University Zoology Professor Khairul Bashar gave an expert opinion alongside a set of recommendations to contain mosquitoes.
Settling the rule, the court instructed the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh and the two city corporations of Dhaka to materialize the recommendations while ordering the government to establish a facility like the VCRC.
Tanveer filed the writ on March 3, 2019, seeking the court’s instructions to help avail protection from the mosquito menace at the country’s prime international airport.
This year, 398 deaths, the highest in a year since dengue was detected in 2000, were reported from dengue while 281 died last year. The total number of patients rose to 85,411.