By Dilanthi Jayamanne
Challenging the veracity of the number of dengue patients from Colombo seeking treatment from government hospitals, published by the Health Ministry, the Public Health Department of the Colombo Municipal Council said that out of the total number of dengue patients island wide, Colombo did not produce fifty percent of them as claimed by the Health Ministry.
PHD Chief Dr. Pradeep Kariyawasam said he would write to the Health Ministry asking for details regarding the large number of dengue patients from the city who sought treatment from government hospitals. He said he had requested the Health Ministry to send him the figures on several occasions to enable him to verify the statistics given by them as far as the CMC area was concerned.
Dr. Kariyawasam said that the Ministry on several occasions had stated that more than 50 per cent of patients reported this year were from the Colombo District. Last year they reported, it was over 70 percent. The number of dengue patients, recorded from the beginning of January to the end of the third week of February, was 6,138 while the number recorded from the Colombo District was 1,612. The number of cases reported from Colombo city was 438.
The Ministry also claimed that most of the people who had been infected were those who had visited Colombo from outstations. However, the Ministry had failed to give in writing how they had come to that conclusion. Dr. Kariyawasam said he would write to the Assistant Secretary of the Health Ministry and request details on the issue.
The Municipal PHD had, during the last two months, inspected 18,000 houses and their premises to check on mosquito breeding locations. The officers had detected 1,100 mosquito breeding places. Dr. Kariyawasam said that most affected areas in the city were slums and shanties due to the congestion in the areas.
The Health Ministry could not be contacted for comment.
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