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Colombo Municipal Council area:
Over one dengue patient per hour
CMC launches vigorous campaign:
Shirley Wijesinghe
About 20 dengue cases are reported a day within the Colombo Municipal
Council limits, CMC Chief Medical Officer Dr. Pradeep Kariywasam said.
This does not include dengue victims taking private and ayurveda
treatment. Taking into account the unrecorded victims, it seems over one
new dengue patient is found in the Colombo City every hour.
The dengue death toll reported within the Colombo Municipal area so
far is 15 during this year while 1,255 positive cases have been
identified, Dr. Kariyawasam said.
According to the Epidemiological Unit, there were 148 dengue deaths
reported islandwide during this year while 20, 647 cases of dengue were
detected. CMC has launched a vigorous campaign to combat dengue.
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Victims’ relatives do not support
Dengue fight - Minister |
Health
Minister Maithripala Sirisena said it was sad to note that
relatives and friends of those who have either contacted or
succumbed to dengue fever do not support to eradicate this
menace.
Sirisena attending a dengue
control program conducted by the R. Duminda Silva Foundation to
make the people in Kolonnawa, Meetotamulla and Wadugewatta on
preventing the spread of dengue said dengue victims’ relatives
and friends must come forward to caution and advise the people
and how not to get infected by the disease.
“I visited the Lady Ridgeway Children’s Hospital recently and
found that hundreds of patients at the hospital were for
treatment of dengue. Every ward was filled with dengue patients.
They were from all parts of the island. This shows that the
dengue fever is spread all over of the country,” he said.
Cooperation from all to the Presidential Dengue Task Force is
essential to stop the disease from spreading, the Minister said.
”Although, there are about 2500 species of mosquitoes all are
not disease borne mosquitoes. Only a few are capable of
infecting people. Mosquitoes pick up a dengue virus when they
sting a human who is infected with the virus. The mosquito then
carries it in its own blood and spreads it when it bites other
humans”, Minister Sirisena said.
”Dengue mosquito eggs could last up to one year in water. The
life span of a mosquito is about a week, and they could travel
up to one kilometre during this time infecting people.
There is a possibility of a person being infected more than
once.
This could be fatal. However much we educate the people of the
risk of dengue disease, they do not take this seriously.
The Government cannot tackle this problem alone by itself
without public cooperation”, he said. |
Dr. Kariyawasam said out of the 10,200 premises inspected during the
anti-dengue campaign launched by the CMC on Saturday 1,563 premises had
dengue mosquito breeding grounds. Only 642 households had followed CMC
guidelines to mitigate the dengue threat in their own premises as well
as the city, he added.
“The householders’ cooperation to prevent mosquito borne diseases
were at a very low level and their attitude too was negative.
They always question the CMC about its incapability of clearing
garbage collection within the city but ignore their own
responsibilities,” he said.
He said Saturday’s inspection campaign was only limited to the
residences of Colombo North and Colombo Central areas.
The inspection especially focused in the wards including Modera,
Mattakkuliya, Kotahena, Grandpass, Maligawatte, New Bazzar and
Gintupitiya.
He said that about 300 CMC staffers, 200 from other organizations
including police officers, Rotary Club members and representatives from
other community organizations had been engaged in the house-to -house
visits. “
The participation of over 1,500 students is a great support to us,”
he added. Most places identified as having a dengue risk sites are
uncleared gutters and drains neglected for a long time by the occupants.
Those places are neglected even after deaths following dengue in
their neighbour’s houses, Dr. Kariyawasam said. |
