Forces, Police help curb dengue

Over 2,000 dengue cases this year:

Chamikara WEERASINGHE

The Armed Forces and the Police helped prevent dengue. The Cuban -based BTI bacteria played a lesser role in the process of preventing the spread of the disease.

The support given by the Army, the Navy and the Police to eliminate dengue breeding grounds and to capture those who dump waste haphazardly in the city, into canals, rivers and drains, has prevented a resurgence of a massive outbreak as in the last year, Health Ministry epidemiologists said yesterday.

The Forces and Police personnel were integrated to aid the Presidential Task Force on Dengue Control and Eradication for the first time by Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa in 2010.

The number of dengue cases in the year was over 35,000.

The number of dengue cases reported to the Health Ministry so far this year is little over 2,000 whereas in the first quarter of 2010 was 12,000. The Armed Forces and the Police helped control the spread of the disease by eliminating places where dengue-vector Aedes aegypti was breeding as against spraying mosquito larvae on them.

Since Aedes aegypti breeds in man-made containers partly filled with clean water, such as discarded plastic cups, food containers, nut shells and tyres, the spraying of BTI on them does not eliminate their breeding grounds, said Epidemiologist and Health Ministry Anti Malaria Unit Deputy Director Dr Resintha Premaratna.