Dengue Control Committees :

Over 50 pc govt institutions ignore Presidential directive

Ridma DISSANAYAKE

Sri Lanka has 63 ministries but only 45 have appointed Dengue Control Committees and only 35 out of 90 departments have responded to the circular by the Secretary to the President directing government institutions to set up Dengue Control Committees, Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena said.

“There are 33 Authorities in the country and only 19 appointed Dengue Control Committees. Only 13 out of 30 boards, 14 out of 24 corporations, nine out of 21 commissions and only 49 statutory bodies have responded to the circular issued by the Secretary to the President,” he said. “The government institutions’ response on this issue was poor. Over 50 percent out of the total number of government institutions have not established Dengue Control Committees to support the National Dengue Prevention and Control Programme implemented by the Health Ministry’s National Dengue Prevention and Control Unit,” Minister Sirisena said.

All governmental institutions have to play a vital role in the dengue prevention and control programme, he said. Their contribution is very important to make this effort a success.

Sri Lanka’s dengue death rate has dropped to 4.5 percent and all measures have been taken by the government to bring this down to one percent, he added.

Minister Sirisena was addressing an awareness workshop for government servants on dengue prevention and control at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute yesterday.

“The Presidential Task Force on Dengue was appointed two years ago under the guidance of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga issued a special circular to all government institutions to appoint special committees in their institutions to control dengue. But governmental institutions have not responded to this in a successful manner,.” the minister said.

Sirisena said the country is criticising the Health Ministry on the issue of dengue. “But my ministry cannot do everything on its own. It needs the support of all sections to control dengue in Sri Lanka. In the past two or three months, some media questioned why Sri Lanka cannot follow methods adopted by other countries to control the dengue epidemic,” he said.

“But they have failed to mention countries like India where dengue has reached dangerous proportions surpassing Sri Lanka.

They should understand that with the cultural and political set up, Sri Lanka cannot follow strict measures like in Cuba, Thailand and Singapore,” the minister said. The number of dengue patients in Sri Lanka has increased. But the number of dengue deaths decreased due to the service and dedication of the specialist doctors and medical staff, he said.