Dhaka, Dec. 1 -- People pay through their nose for high health cost as government hospitals in Bangladesh serve only 11.2 per cent of the population by an official count.

Of the rest, more than half of the population depends on pharmacy or dispensary or rural doctors for treatment, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) survey unveils.

For taking treatment against their diseases, a Bangladeshi needs to spend Tk 9,948 per year, it shows.

Among the diseases, the morbidity rate for high blood pressure is the highest as 78.28 people out of 1,000 die for the impact of the illness.

Per 1,000 people, peptic ulcer is the second-highest in number for morbidity prevalence as 63.79 of them died for the disease, while 43.15 for diabetics, 39.75 fo...