Massive dengue clean-up for Colombo

by Ranil WIJAYAPALA

A massive clean-up campaign has to be carried out within a short period in the Colombo city to make the dengue control program more effective as piecemeal clean up campaigns in the city have not shown any progress so far, Chief Medical Officer of the Colombo Municipal Council Dr. Pradeep Kariyawasam said.

He said the spread of dengue is still on the increase with 12 deaths and 1939 dengue cases have been reported already within the Colombo city limits.

''About 25 to 30 dengue cases are being reported within the city daily basis,'' he added.

He said the piecemeal clean up operations in the city are not effective as there are 1,600 underserved settlements within the city.

''The shramadana campaigns conducted in five six settlements per week is not sufficient to control this menace as it takes more than a year to completely clean the entire city,'' he added.

Dr. Kariyawasam said more than 70 per cent of the dengue cases are reported from the heavily populated Colombo North areas and fewer patients are reported from the Kollupitiya, Bambalapitiya, Cinnamon Gardens and Slave Island..

''The removal of parapet walls has also been contributed effectively to control dengue in Cinnamon Gardens area and Colombo South area as uncleaned areas were exposed afterwards'', he added.

According to the epidemiology Unit of the Health Ministry 11901 dengue cases and 93 deaths have been reported in the country so far this year.

In the Colombo district alone 4632 dengue patients and 37 dengue deaths have been reported.

The highest number of dengue cases of 3,420 have been reported within the month of June. In the first two weeks of this month 16 dengue related deaths that is the highest for month was reported.