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Physicians on quest to have zero dengue deaths in SL
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CCP President Dr. Upul Dissanayake
National Guideline on the Management of Dengue 2024 to be launched at 57th Anniversary Annual Academic Sessions of the CCP on Thursday
By Kumudini Hettiarachchi
Almost all homes in densely-populated areas of the country experience worry over the scourge of dengue. Now physicians are on a mission to ease these fears by making dengue deaths zero!
CCP Joint Secretary Dr. Chanaka Aberathne
Having battled this mosquito-borne disease over the years with good clinical management, physicians have been able to drastically reduce dengue deaths (case fatality) from a chilling 9.4% (1 in 10 patients hit by dengue) in 1986 to 0.05% in 2024. Now they have set their sights on zero deaths.
This is why a highlight of the inauguration of the 57th Anniversary Annual Academic Sessions of the august Ceylon College of Physicians (CCP) on Thursday (September 19) in Colombo, will be the launch of the new ‘National Guideline on the Management of Dengue 2024’.
“This national guideline updates the last version which was released in 2012, more than 12 years ago,” said CCP President Dr. Upul Dissanayake, who is juggling his honorary duties as the guiding force of the CCP while also tending to his patients at the premier National Hospital of Sri Lanka (NHSL).
Always with a smile, this senior Physician laughs off the queries as to how he accomplishes this, by saying that he has dynamic teams both at the CCP and the NHSL to ease his load.
CCP Joint Secretary Dr. Chiranthi Liyanage
With his theme for the year as CCP President being ‘Diversity, Inclusivity and Equity’, Dr. Dissanayake says that he and his team are “doing our best” to make headway in this direction. They are striving to change the mindset of the medical fraternity, ingrained with biases brought about by the environment they may have grown in. These biases could be racial, religious, against a particular language, gender or even sexual orientation. However, such biases could result in discrimination and disadvantage.
“Remember that doctors have not grown up or live in a cocoon, but in society where there are biases and prejudices, which can easily seep into their psyche,” he says, pointing out that in ancient times in Sri Lanka, long before colonization, society was open and non-judgmental. It was with the Victorian era that puritanical thinking spread and while the west has now changed this archaic thinking, countries such as Sri Lanka are still clinging to it.
Dengue committee Chairperson Dr. Ananda Wijewickrama
The CCP has initiated a “healthy” exchange of views to debunk misinformation and myth surrounding the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer) community, with leaders of that community interacting with more than 250 doctors and nurses at the NHSL’s ClinMARC auditorium.
The CCP team had next taken the message under the catchy title ‘Imagine all the people – health disparities among the LGBTQI’ across the country to Jaffna, Matara and Badulla. Kandy and Moneragala are next on the list.
Dr. Dissanayake said that he and his team also continued the “good work” such as ‘Leadership Training’ and ‘Communication Skills Enhancement’ set in motion by their predecessors.
Focusing on communication skills, he said there was a real-life case study, a patient encounter now on video which is being used for robust discussion by the CCP.
A patient from Passara seeks treatment at the Badulla Teaching Hospital. Having taken a detailed case history followed by a chest X-ray which indicates the strong possibility of a spreading cancer (malignancy), the doctor rushes around arranging a referral to an oncologist and an early date for a CT scan in view of the urgency.
The patient, however, refuses pointblank to get admitted to hospital because his priorities are different. Pongal is just a week away and he wants to buy a few things to celebrate this festival at home with his family. He assures that he would come for hospital admission thereafter.
“This incident signals the lack of communication with the patient, even though the doctor was only having the patient’s best interests at heart,” says Dr. Dissanayake.
Dengue committee Convenor Dr. Dumitha Govindapala
A Leadership Training Programme on ‘Conflict resolution’ and ‘How to be assertive’ is scheduled to be held as a pre-congress session.
Meanwhile, reverting to the Dengue Management Guideline, the CCP President lauds the Guideline Development Committee of which he too was a member.
The committee had comprised Dr. Ananda Wijewickrama (Chairperson); Dr. Dumitha Govindapala (Convenor); Dr. Damayanthi Idampitiya; Prof. Anuradha Dassanayake; Dr. Dilshan Priyankara; Prof. N. Suganthan; Prof. Udaya Ralapanawa; Dr. Krishantha Jayasekara; Prof. Neelika Malavige; Prof. K.T. Suntharesan; Dr. D. Munasinghe; Dr. Asanka Ratnayake; Dr. Dinuka de Silva; Dr. Nalayani Rajaratnam; and Dr. Nilanka Perera.
| Eminent line-up at CCP academic sessions’ inauguration The inauguration of the CCP’s 57th Anniversary Annual Academic Sessions will be on Thursday (September 19), with eminent local and international physicians in attendance. The Chief Guest is Dr. Sasanka Perera, former Professor of Sociology, South Asian University, India, and the Guests of Honour are Prof. Javed Akram, President, Pakistani Society of Internal Medicine; Dr. Mumtaz Patel, Acting for the President of the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), London; and Prof. Andrew Elder, President of the RCP of Edinburgh. The CCP Oration on ‘Bridging bench and bedside to explore the role of Indian polyvalent anti-venom in treating snakebite in Sri Lanka’ will be delivered by Prof. Anjana Silva of the Rajarata University. During the sessions, the Dr. Cyril Fernando Memorial Oration on ‘The evolving landscape of multiple sclerosis and related disorders in Sri Lanka: A 25-year exploration’ will be by Dr. Bimsara Senanayake and the Dr. E.V. Peiris Oration on ‘A kaleidoscope of antibiotic use in Sri Lanka: are we doing it right’ by Prof. Chandanie Wanigatunge. | |
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