Red Cross to assist Health Ministry in dengue control

OVER 200 Red Cross volunteers from Colombo and Gampaha districts are deployed in a programme to control the spread of dengue.

The Red Cross volunteers are carrying out these activities in association with the Ministry of Health and Colombo Municipal Council in Kolonnawa, Moratuwa, Maharagama, Nugegoda, Kelaniya, Mahara, Wattala, Gampaha, Biyagama, Dehiwela and Colombo City limits, the Sri Lanka Red Cross said.

Two awareness workshops for SLRCS volunteers were in Colombo and Gampaha on this programme.

"The objective is to assist Government authorities to control the spread of dengue in these high-prone areas," Dr. Lanka Jayasuriya Dissanayake, Executive Director Health of Sri Lanka Red Cross Society said.

Red Cross volunteers are engaged in house to house surveys to identify dengue-breeding places and thereafter disinfection activities are carried out.

Health education and awareness programmes are also conducted to motivate villagers on the importance of having proper garbage disposal systems and ensuring of elimination of mosquito breeding places.

Leaflets with instruction to families regarding mosquito-breeding places and how to keep the environment free of the dengue menace are also being distributed.

Around 2,627 dengue cases were reported up to August 15 last year, the number of dengue cases were much higher but the percentage of death was less, compared to 2005.

Sixty five per cent dengue cases are from the Western Province of which 39 per cent are from Colombo district and 21 per cent from Gampaha district.