Govt institutions defy dengue directive

by Carol Aloysius

Over 90 percent of government institutions continue to ignore the Health Ministry directive to set up Dengue Prevention Committees in their institutions. The directive was issued to them some time ago.

Less than 10 percent have responded. Government institutions, including corporations are the biggest breeders of the dengue carrying vector,” Health Ministry spokesman W.A D. Wanninayake told the Sunday Observer.

He said that it was virtually impossible for the Health Ministry alone to inspect thousands of government premises in the country. “It is a public responsibility.

If everyone gets together to clean their premises and their neighbourhoods at least once a week, we can solve this problem to a large extent.”

He said that the heavy rains could cause a surge in mosquito breeding sites and called upon the public not to leave polythene bags, yoghurt cups and dead leaves in their premises which could provide the ideal breeding grounds for mosquito larvae.

Forty-seven schools and two universities in Colombo were inspected by the Dengue Prevention committee yesterday, in the wake of several schools being closed temporarily following a previous inspection.

At present 14,091 suspected dengue cases have been reported to the Epidemiology Unit of which 42.14 percent were from the Western Province. Eight districts reported over 500 cases, with Colombo leading at 3,620 while three reported over 1,000 cases.