Top level meeting on dengue prevention held

A top level meeting headed by Secretary to the President, Austin Fernando was held with the Operations Committee on Dengue Prevention at the Presidential Secretariat. Heads of relavant Institutions of health sector took part in this meeting.

As the 30 percent of dengue patients are school children, the Committee suggested handing over the responsibility of making the school premises free from dengue mosquitoes to the Principals of the schools. Accordingly, all Principals of the island will be educated on this regard through the Secretary to the Education Ministry.

The Meeting discussed about the importance of giving priority to the districts, recognized as the critical areas of dengue. It was emphasized that there will be an issue in controlling the spread of dengue due to current weather conditions and also the possibility of rain within next few months. Accordingly it was decided to take quick actions to solve this problem.

Attention was also paid on getting active contribution of the government officers and the people for the dengue prevention projects carried out by the Tri Forces. They discussed about the ways to strengthen the current dengue control projects.

During the discussion the officials paid attention on getting assistance from the networks of mobile phones and information communication institutes to inform about critical areas of dengue and educate the public on controlling of dengue.

Minister Faizer Mustafa, Deputy Minister Lasantha Alagiyawanna, Mrs. Chathurika Sirisena, Secretary to the Ministry of Local Government and Provincial Councils Kamal Padmasiri, Director General of Health Services Doctor Jayasundara Bandara, District Secretaries and Commanders of Tri Forces also joined this discussion.