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| Thursday, 3 June 2004 |
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Health Ministry keeps school authorities alert on dengue by Bharatha Malawaraarachchi Health Ministry yesterday urged school authorities to clean up their premises and surroundings before re-opening following the A/L exams as a survey had revealed that most of the schools have become breeding places for dengue mosquitoes. Most of the schools are to be re-opened next week after being closed for examinations and the Health Ministry warns that many school children will have to suffer if the school premises are not cleaned appropriately. The Dengue epidemic which had spread with the onset of the monsoonal rains have claimed 18 lives so far during this year with another 3,362 suspected cases reported. From this week onwards, the Health Ministry plans to take strict legal action against those failing to ensure clean surrounding in a bid to prevent the spread of dengue fever. Already, the Ministry has installed a hotline for this purpose and the public could make their complaints over telephone No. 2675449 on such places which are posing a health hazard and leading to the breeding of the dengue mosquito. The tough action by the Health Ministry follows Health Care, Nutrition and Uva Wellassa Development Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva declaring a Dengue prevention week aimed at speedy action to combat the alarming rise in the number of Dengue victims. " Whether it is state or private institutions, the Head of Departments will be held responsible for not cleaning the environment and legal action will follow against them," the official said. Therefore, he urged everyone to cooperate to eradicate the health hazard due to dengue by ensuring a clean environment at their homes and workplaces. He also stressed the necessity of implementing a proper program to clean up the surrounding of school buildings as there had been reports of many dengue breeding spots in schools. Parallel to the Dengue Prevention week a thorough clean up operation was launched in homes, buildings and office complexes to keep the environment clean while a special "cleanliness day" was set apart for all Government Departments. |
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