News
Dengue loses its sting; for the moment
The battle against dengue scored a major victory this week with the reported cases being the lowest in the corresponding period for the past five years, Epidemiology Unit statistics have shown. The first week of September this year recorded 271 cases, while last year the same period showed 574 cases. In 2013 for the same period 594 cases were reported while in 2012 it was 831, 2011, 521 cases and for 2010 447 cases.
Islandwide the total number of dengue cases for this year is 20,278 compared to the 30,296 cases reported within the same period last year. Health ofifcials say the drop was due to the collective action by the tri forces and public health workers. They said the battle against the sting would continue and one such programme was the National Mosquito Control week that began on Thursday.
National Dengue Control Unit Director, Dr. Hasitha Tissera said over the past nine months health officials had examined nearly one million premises. Dr. Tissera also commended the public for their efforts to keep their surroundings clean. He said health officials stepped in when the public had overlooked certain areas.
“We identified and got rid of possible mosquito breeding places. These sites had been overlooked by the public because they didn’t know such places could turn into breeding sites,” he said. He said health officials will continue to focus their attention on houses, factories, religious institutions, educational institutions, state and private institutions and construction sites islandwide throughout the Mosquito Control Week that ends on Wednesday.
The law will be enforced in cases where property owners have been “grossly negligent”, Dr. Tissera said adding however that court cases weren’t encouraged primarily because it was not the way forward. “We won’t see any results by taking people to courts, he said, whilst adding that the focus was mainly on creating awareness among the public rather than prosecuting them.
However Colombo’s Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Dr. Ruwan Wijayamuni has warned that there could be a rise in the number of dengue cases in Colombo city, mainly due to the prevailing weather, adding that precautions were being taken.
He said so far Colombo had reported a 25 per cent drop in the number of dengue cases in comparison to last year’s figures.
Following the launch of National Mosquito Control Week 5686 houses in the city have been inspected and nearly 52 mosquito breeding places were detected so far, Dr. Wijayamuni said.
He said nearly 12 percent of the house premises that were inspected had areas that could become potential mosquito breeding places. “This is worrying and we will identify more such probable mosquito breeding places in the coming week,” he said, adding that if the officials were capable of effectively controlling the disease within the city then dengue could be eradicated in Colombo.