Inter-monsoonal rains could trigger dengue:

Eliminate breeding sites -Health Ministry

by Carol Aloysius

As dengue suspected cases soar, the Health Ministry has warned of a fresh outbreak of the disease when the inter-monsoonal rains begin in November.

The Health Ministry is currently conducting education programs and cleaning up operations in different parts of the island ahead of the monsoons, as a further outbreak is expected to result in the number of cases overtaking previous outbreaks.

Colombo Municipal Council sources said anti dengue operations such as fogging, spraying BTI and cleaning polluted areas were being carried out in dengue high risk areas which included Mattakkuliya, Aluthkade, New Bazaar, Kuppiyawatte, Kirulapone and Thimbirigasyaya as they were overcrowded, had unclean environments and overgrown greenery where the mosquito could lay its eggs. CMC sources said all imported stocks of Cuban BTI had been exhausted and a survey was being carried out to find out how effective the local BTI was.

The Colombo Municipal area has the highest number of reported cases of suspected dengue, a total of 6,487 cases cited by the Epidemiology Unit on Friday, September 6.

Islandwide, the Western Province continues to have the highest number of cases out of the 22,738 suspected cases (47.61% of total cases) for the first 9 months of 2013.

Islandwide dengue suspected cases have risen sharply and almost doubled in at least 10 districts during August compared to July, the Epidemiology Unit sources said.

Chief Epidemiologst Dr Paba Palihawadene in the Unit's website requested patients with fever lasting more than 3 days to seek medical attention.

The Acting Director of the Anti Dengue Campaign Dr Udaya Ratnayake said an entomological survey would be carried out soon to monitor areas where high larvae stage sites were located islandwide and an alert would be sent to all MOHs in those districts to destroy the sites. He said keeping the environments clean was the only way to fight the disease