News
Unique dengue centre at Negombo marks 10 years
View(s):- Treats patients of any age and has lowest ever fatality rate in Sri Lanka
By Kumudini Hettiarachchi
One was a neonate and the other two were a mother and newborn – all pulled back from severe dengue a couple of weeks ago.
For the ‘Centre for Clinical Management of Dengue and Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever’ at the Negombo District General Hospital, headed by Consultant Paediatrician Dr. LakKumar Fernando, it is not just a duty to save lives but a mission.
It was at the height of the current dengue epidemic that without much fanfare there was a simple celebration within this special dengue unit.
Thai dengue expert Prof. Suchitra Nimmannitya, part of a World Health Organization (WHO) team which visited the centre on August 14, 2013 at the side of a patient.
The traditional oil lamp was lit, a cake was cut and the busy staff of the unit took a little time off to enjoy a few short-eats. It was their due as the unit totted up a decade of service not just to the men, women and children of Negombo but anyone who came to its door from anywhere in the country.
“What is unique about this centre is that it treats any dengue sufferer from neonates to newborns to children and adults. We have handled a 96-year-old patient too,” says Dr. Fernando, stressing that no other hospital in Sri Lanka or for that matter in the world may be doing so.
The wide-ranging age is also not the only achievement – the centre has treated national athletes, as well as those facing the double danger of dengue and COVID-19; those with severe co-morbidities (long term chronic diseases such as kidney disease, diabetes, heart disease etc.) cancer and also those who have undergone transplants.
Dr. Lak Kumar Fernando
The Sunday Times has closely followed the centre’s service to the nation, since it piloted its management of dengue as an epidemic hit the country in 2013. While the centre was due to open on July 15, it threw open its doors on July 1 that year seeing the dire need of dengue patients including a baby for whom there was no cot.
The centre and Dr. Fernando’s life have been inextricably linked. He and other clinicians had returned from Thailand after studying how that country managed dengue on May 22, 2010. Numerous attempts though to change the system to prevent dengue deaths had not panned out at that time in Sri Lanka.
During a workshop on dengue for around 50 clinicians, both physicians and paediatricians, at Gampaha in June 2010 arranged by him privately to share the knowledge of Thai experts, he had come upon the idea of setting up a High Dependency Unit (HDU) at the Gampaha Hospital where he was working then. This had seen the light of day two months later in August 2010.
Thinking deeply about the way forward, Dr. Fernando had thought up the concept of ‘one centre’ to meet the challenges of management and treatment for this mosquito-borne viral disease.
When he heard on the news that under the November 2011 Budget, the then government was allocating Rs. 200 million to combat dengue, he had called the then Additional Secretary of the Health Ministry, Dr. Palitha Mahipala seeking part of those funds for the one-stop centre for all ages affected by dengue. He had been told then that each district was to be given only Rs. 10m.
“Even though Gampaha was due to get Rs. 10m, the hospital there had no space,” says Dr. Fernando, who then looked at the Negombo Hospital where there was an abandoned shed prone to flooding but with a steel roof, which would help cut costs. He was due to come to Negombo on transfer in January 2012.
He appreciates the wholehearted support extended by Dr. Mahipala to get the centre up and running.
The first patient admitted even before the opening of the centre on June 28, 2013
……And so like the phoenix rising from the ashes, the 17-bed state-of-the-art ‘Centre for Clinical Management of Dengue and Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever’ became a reality 10 years ago in July.
By 2017, during the height of the dengue epidemic then, when the centre needed some Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds, a Good Samaritan had come in the form of Fr. Darrel Coonghe who donated six beds.
Now with a total of 23 beds, the centre has performed different feats including the delivery of babies of dengue-hit mothers in there and not the usual labour room.
Even when Dr. Fernando was transferred back to Gampaha Hospital for two years (2016-17), he had been asked to oversee the centre which he did with daily early morning and late night visits, causing much strain on his health.
The record of Negombo’s Centre for Clinical Management of Dengue and Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever speaks for itself – while treating 16,184 patients including those with severe disease in the last 10 years, there has been zero fatalities in any man, woman or child admitted with platelets over 100,000.
With the centre having the lowest ever fatality rate in Sri Lanka, it has set a new benchmark for dengue mortality (deaths).
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