Halt the dengue spread

Dengue has reared its ugly head once again and the authorities would do well to prepare in advance to confront the situation before things get out of hand as witnessed in the past. A 10-year-old student in the Dehiwela Mt. Lavinia area died on Saturday from the disease as reported in the media. According to these reports dengue is also rapidly spreading in the Kawdana area and it will be only a matter of time before it make inroads into other areas that has seen a large prevalence of the epidemic such as Colombo and Gampaha.

Complaints have been legion about the sorry state of the Dehiwela Mt. Lavinia Municipal areas where the garbage problem has become acute paving the way for epidemics such as dengue.

People of the area blame the Dehiwela Mt. Lavinia Municipal Council for this situation and not without reason since it has had a poor record of garbage clearance mainly due to maladministration. Ditto for the Colombo Municipal Council and a majority of other Local Government bodies who have failed miserably to clear dengue-breeding sites.

It is hoped that at least the new crop of councillors would galvanize into action in the fresh flush of victory and take upon this task with urgency and show the people that they were indeed worthy recipients of their vote. Ideally they should begin their tasks at the newly elected local bodies with a large-scale anti-dengue campaign in their respective areas by mustering all the manpower and resources thus making a clear break with the previous administrations who had singularly failed in this endeavour.

Since there is a large percentage of youth who have got elected this time it would certainly be in their nature to launch Shramadana campaigns in their respective areas to weed out the dengue breeding grounds.

They should also take the lead in visiting homes and other premises to create awareness of the problem. Being close to the public as newly elected councillors this no doubt will elicit the necessary response.

No stone should be left unturned in fighting the epidemic and this should be done before it is too late and disease has spread far and wide. The Health Ministry for its part should get things moving right away and commence cleaning operations pronto. It should start issuing warnings to the public to keep their premises free of dengue breeding spots. This should be extended to all public institutions, schools and businesses.

Steps should also be taken to clean up neglected overgrown lands that one often come across in the city. Long abandoned old derelict buildings should also come under the microscope. Their owners should be warned to clean up such premises on the pain of severe penalties. This should be extended to all other idle land and premises which provide naturally a sanctuary to the dengue mosquito.

This time the law should be applied strictly to bring to book any offender. So far only a few such offenders have been prosecuted while it so obvious that there are extensive areas of dengue breeding grounds to any observer. The deadly nature of the disease should be dinned into the minds of the public so that they would appreciate the danger and take the initiative in doing the needful. As mentioned, all contingency plans should be put in motion without delay lest the authorities be caught napping when the disease is suddenly sprung on the public and snowballs out of control. It is pointless the Health Ministry issuing statistics and of the dead and those fallen victim routinely without appropriate action taken before hand to prevent the epidemic from spreading.

By the same token the Ministry should also ensure the relevant vaccines are got down and are ready if and when an outbreak occurs. We saw the consequences of the delay in importing the anti dengue vaccine last time around that led to even a hullabaloo as to its effectiveness. Special attention should be paid to the recent flood affected areas which are bound to be vulnerable. Besides steps should be taken to tackle the dengue epidemic on a national scale.

We say this because the various awareness programs carried out so far has not brought the desired results with the number of victims rising each year. While the spread of dengue cannot be eliminated in toto the Health Ministry should this time around ensure that the victims are reduced to the minimum.