SL dengue outbreak reaches epidemic proportions

Sri Lanka's health officials have said that the dengue outbreak in the island nation has reached epidemic proportions with the deaths of 120 people, adding that over 10 districts were affected by the rapidly increasing spread of the disease.

Government Medical Officers' Association (GMOA) Secretary, Haritha Aluthge told the Daily Mirror on Saturday that while Colombo, Gampaha and Kandy were the worst affected districts, with 50 per cent of the total of over 87,000 number of cases reported, for the first time an outbreak of dengue was also reported from the Jaffna.

In Jaffna alone, 7,000 dengue cases have been reported.

Haritha said that last year, the GMOA had put forward a proposal to control the spread of dengue which was implemented temporarily by the former health minister. However, it was neglected months later.

The GMOA now calls for the full implementation of the proposals and hope to discuss it with all stakeholders including the presidential task force which was appointed by the former government to tackle the spread of the disease.

Director of the National Dengue Control Unit, Aruna Jayasekara told the Daily Mirror that a higher number of people were affected by the disease this year due to the continuous rains.

A fresh national dengue programme will be launched in the high-risk areas next week, he said.

According to official statistics from the Epidemiology Unit, over 17,900 cases have been reported from Colombo, over 13,700 cases have been reported from Gampaha and over 7,600 cases have been reported from Kandy. IANS