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Health Ministry to ‘name and shame’ schools with dengue mosquito breeding sites
View(s):By Kasun Warakapitiya
A list of schools which were identified as having the worst dengue mosquito breeding sites is to be made public shortly.
Health Ministry Secretary Anil Jasinghe told the Sunday Times that they had decided to ‘name and shame’ the schools so it would have a social impact.
The Dengue Control Unit had already compiled the list of schools and is yet to send it to the Health Ministry Secretary for approval before it is released to the media.
Consultant Community Physician of the National Dengue Control Unit Pricilla Samaraweera explained that during the dengue control week they had inspected 257 schools for dengue mosquito breeding places in 15 districts covering 95 MoH divisions.
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- Public health workers in dengue combat operations in Colombo. Pix by Akila Jayawardena
According to the statistics, 131 schools of those inspected had potential dengue breeding places, while 37 schools had dengue mosquito breeding places which had dengue larvae.
The schools with the worst cases would be made public, she added.
Meanwhile, during the same programme 718 State institutes had been inspected for mosquito breeding places. During that inspection 214 mosquito breeding places had been identified within State institutes, with mosquito larvae present on 79 premises.
Dr Jasinghe proposed that the names of government institutions and schools that failed to clear dengue breeding places should be exposed to the media.
He explained that the move will create issues for the school’s principals, cause embarrassment to old boys and girls, cause fear among students as well as their parents, driving them to get involved and take action.
Dr Jasinghe added that the list of names of the schools with the worst cases of mosquito breeding would be made available to the media, and he had already given instructions to the Dengue Control Unit on the matter.
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