Dr Anchal Roy

Roy developed dengue while still working. She continued treating patients for about two days after her fever began and was managed at home for several days. On about the fourth or fifth day a sharp drop in her platelet count led her family to admit her to Square Hospital in Dhaka. She was initially placed in a general cabin or high dependency unit, then transferred to the intensive care unit after plasma leakage caused dengue shock syndrome.

She developed lactic acidosis, severe liver complications and multi-organ failure and was placed on life support. Despite intensive care she died at 8:20am on 27 September 2026 at Square Hospital. She was 30. Her junior colleague Dr Anik Biswas and hospital officials confirmed the death to the press. Her funeral was held that afternoon at the Rajarbagh Kali Temple crematorium in Dhaka.

Her death came as September 2026 became the deadliest month of Bangladesh's dengue year, with DGHS figures cited in contemporary reports showing well over a hundred September deaths and more than two hundred nationwide for the year to date.

Dr Anchal Roy was a Dhaka resident whose ancestral home was in Brahmanbaria. She studied medicine at Abdul Malek Ukil Medical College in Noakhali, later renamed Noakhali Medical College, as a student of the seventh batch. There she met Biplob Chandra Das, a fifth-batch student of the same college, who would later become her husband.

After graduation she entered government medical service through the 42nd Bangladesh Civil Service as a health cadre officer. Following upazila-level postings she was appointed assistant registrar at Mugda Medical College Hospital in Dhaka.

At Mugda Medical College Hospital Roy worked as an assistant registrar. Her main attachment was to the neurology department, and she was more recently attached to respiratory medicine. She also treated dengue patients from time to time as part of her clinical duties, work that put her close to Bangladesh's severe 2026 dengue surge.

In the months before her illness she passed the FCPS mid-term examination in internal medicine and Part One of the MRCP (UK), milestones her husband described as a source of pride for the family. She was scheduled to take charge in the hospital's dengue unit around the time of her death, according to colleagues who spoke to reporters.

Roy and Biplob Chandra Das (also reported as Dr Biplab Das) knew each other as medical students at Noakhali Medical College and began a relationship after graduation. After three years together they married. At the time of her death they had been married for about seventeen months and had no children. Biplob works at the National Institute of Population Research and Training (NIPORT).

Colleagues remembered her as a dedicated clinician who kept treating patients even after she had developed a fever.

Roy's death prompted widespread mourning among 42nd BCS health cadre officers and the broader medical community. Health and Family Welfare Minister Sardar Md Sakhawat Husain issued a condolence message saying the health sector had lost a dedicated doctor.

Beyond personal tributes, her case drew national attention because she was both a clinician who treated dengue patients and a victim of the same outbreak. She stands as a reminder of the cost of the 2026 dengue surge to Bangladesh's own hospital workforce, and of a medical career cut short just as specialist qualifications were beginning to open.