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Dengue
week to fight the mosquito menace Lady Ridgeway Children's Hospital Director Dr. Wimal Jayantha told The Sunday Times that heads of all health institutions would concentrate their attention during the next week mainly on Dengue as part of the Health Ministry's designated "Health Week". He said these days the hospital treats between 20-25 indoor patients (children below the age of 12 years) compared to between some 2-3 patients treated during the same period last year and said the dengue outbreak was known to peak during May and July. Dr. Jayantha said as a method of prevention and control it was important that the government and the public make a joint effort to destroy breeding grounds of disease carrying mosquitos. But regrettably the response was lethargic. Epidemiologist Dr. Nihal Abeysinghe told The Sunday Times that upto yesterday some 3360 dengue patients and 16 deaths have been reported throughout the island while Colombo district tops the list with 677 cases. In the month of May alone more than 695 cases have been reported. Dr. Abeysinghe said this was an increase of 40 per cent. He said rains now prevalent in the country was one of the reasons. The Sunday Times learns that after the "Dengue Week", the Health Ministry will deploy flying squads to raid institutions both Government and Private to inspect for possible mosquito breeding grounds and hold the heads of these institutions responsible if any such were to be found. |
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