Silent achievement

Our lead story yesterday was about a silent achievement. It was about the success of the dengue control effort in Jaffna. Unlike the programs that are carried in full glare of publicity with the presence of a hoard of journalists from the print and electronic media and political heavyweights the Jaffna district has achieved much more than all others.

It is heartening to know that the incidence of the disease has come down from 649 in January to 30 by the end of July. This was achieved by public servants in the health sector with the assistance and cooperation of the people. It was despite the existence of a large number of abandoned houses that were highly dengue prone.

This poses a question. Why couldn't the other districts, including those with better physical and human resources achieve such success? Obviously there must be something wrong. It could be the relative lack of enthusiasm and commitment on the part of public servants. Also, the apathy and indifference of the public could be a reason, one out of many. The over-emphasis of media publicity for the inauguration ceremonies for environment cleaning creates an impression that the interest is more in getting media publicity than achieving the declared goal of dengue prevention.

It is also necessary to point out the lack of awareness on the threat posed by the epidemic. With the dry weather prevailing in most parts of the country a certain reduction in the incidence of dengue was shown recently. It is in this situation that both politicians and officials rushed to declare victory in the war on dengue. Definitely, there is no reason for such premature pronouncement of success. The density of the mosquito population in the country is too high to arrive at such a conclusion.

According to knowledgeable authorities on the subject it is necessary to reduce the density of the dengue vector population. It is in this context that the application of bio-larvaecides such as BTI become important. While dilly-dallying by the authorities for several years is responsible for the failure to get down so far Cuban BTI, it is bureaucratic bungling that is still preventing the mass production of local BTI. There seems to be a strong lobby that is opposed to the application of BTI. That is why false stories are spread that it is harmful to humans and natural agents that harm the dengue mosquitoes.

It is also sad that our scientists who worked hard to produce local BTI are not recognised.

The government should appreciate their services and provide facilities to continue their research in finding local natural agents that could destroy the dengue larvae. In this respect it is also useful to get the assistance of other countries such as India and Vietnam that have done similar research and obtained some degree of success.

Still both Parliamentarians and the local level political leaders seem to shy away from actual prevention campaigns with most of them only worried about media publicity. Though the government has shown commitment at the highest levels down the hierarchical order the enthusiasm has waned.

Unless an all out national drive is continuously carried on for a long period without allowing complacency to set in the menace cannot be eliminated.

Deiyo Saakki

A group of devotees who had gone to worship Godess Pattini had been attacked by wasps, a newspaper report said. Now worshipping Gods or Godesses is an innocent act for which the latter should not take offence.

In these circumstances the only conclusion that one could arrive at is that the Godess would have been offended at some previous actions of the devotees and she would have been instrumental in causing the wasp attack.

The moral of the story is that those who wish the Gods to favour them should not indulge in sinful actions lest they earn the wrath of the former. Deiyo Saakki.

Another question that naturally comes to mind is whether there was a single incident when the high and the mighty no less tainted by sin had earned the wrath of the God clan. Perhaps class matters?