Health authorities warn:

Outbreak of vector borne disease likely

[September 20 2015]

by Carol Aloysius

The onset of the North East monsoon rains causing floods could result in an outbreak of several food, water and vector borne diseases, heath authorities warn.

“The outbreaks can occur at any time but they are more prone to occur in unsanitary environments and during floods,” a spokesman for the Epidemiology Unit of the Health Ministry said.

Of the four types of viral hepatitis found in Sri Lanka, Hepatitis A is the commonest, directly caused by drinking and eating unsafe water and food. Chief Food Inspector, Colombo Municipal Council, Lal Kumara, said the owners of food outlets should insist that food handlers cleanse hands after using toilets.

“If not customers, who eat the food they have cooked, can get typhoid and dysentery,” he warned.

Consultant and Community Physician, Anti- Filaria Campaign, Dr. Dilhani Samarasekera said: “The filarial mosquito usually gets washed out during heavy rains.

However, there could be small holes in pits on river banks where mosquitoes lay eggs. Any collection of water, if allowed to remain, could become mosquito breeding sites.”

Community physician, Dengue Control Unit of the CMC, Dr. Nimalka Pannilahetti said, river flooding could only pose a risk of dengue transmission if water containers, whether large or small, were not cleaned regularly and covered with mosquito proof nets and the water replaced regularly could facilitate mosquito breeding sites. Used small containers must also be eliminated as they could be potential breeding sites,” she warned.