DHAKA, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- Scores of people, many of them children, have died in parts of Bangladesh due to cold-related diseases as of Tuesday since November last year.
According to the Directorate General of Health Services under Bangladesh's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, 43 people died due to Acute Respiratory Infection across Bangladesh from Nov. 1 to Tuesday, while six others died from diarrhea.
Winter in Bangladesh typically lasts from December to February.
In the country's northern Rangpur region, which faces the Himalayan mountains, 16 people, including nine children, died from cold-related diseases in Rangpur Medical College Hospital, the region's largest hospital, since last month, according to Brigadier General Ashiqur Rahman, director of the hospital.
He said hundreds of people are undergoing treatment for cold-related illnesses in the hospital amid an ongoing severe cold wave with temperatures fluctuating between 8.6 and 11.9 degrees Celsius in recent days. ■