News
Legal action against 277 residents after dengue programme
View(s):During a three-day dengue eradication programme in the Western province this week, over one thousand four hundred notices were issued and cases filed for legal action against 277 metropolitan residents.
The awareness programme which was organized by the Ministry of Health on Monday saw at least 38,980 places being inspected throughout the province.
The Ministry decided to conduct the programme due to the increased number of dengue patients as the rainy season continues.
The programme saw the participation of 426 groups of medical officers representing the regional offices of 28 Medical Officer of Health (MOH). Officials from the Presidential Secretariat and the armed forces also took part in the programme.
The Epidemiology Unit of the Ministry of Health (EU) observed that over 28,171 dengue cases were reported island wide this year alone with over two thousand cases being reported during the first two weeks of December.
The statistics from the unit revealed an increasing trend in dengue cases island wide from October to December. So far this year 27,696 suspected dengue cases and 54 deaths from dengue have been reported to the Epidemiology Unit from all over the island.
Approximately 52.1 per cent of dengue cases were reported from the Western province and of these, a total of 9,215 cases had been reported from the Colombo district.
Meanwhile a drastic increase in the number of dengue cases that have been reported around the island was also observed by the unit.
The suspected dengue cases from Jaffna, Batticaloa and Kurunegala are also on the rise reaching around 1,500 cases each.
Meanwhile an International Conference on “Dengue and dengue hemorrhagic fever” will be held from February 24-26 next year at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH) in Colombo.
The conference will focus on dengue tools, project dissemination, clinic management, vector control, vaccines and vaccine problems and new inventions to control disease as well pathogenesis including diagnosis.