The raging dengue epidemic recorded an alarming 72 per cent increase in the Colombo District alone as health authorities continued to grapple with the spillover proportions that accounted mainly for adults and young adults, according to a Health Ministry official. Twelve per cent of victims had come to Colombo from suburbs.
The epidemic was manifested by the 9358 lost lives island-wide as it reached a pitch with the most recent victims being two students from Nalanda College, Colombo and a leading Colombo girls’ school. The dengue deaths in 2011 increased to 3491 as compared to 5867 in 2011 with an increase of 3000 cases in Colombo District as health authorities intensified its campaign against dengue in the Western Province and its outskirts with Health Minister, Maithripala Sirisena paying detailed attention to its details.
Several propounding factors from over population in the Colombo District to a spillover of garbage disposals, continuing rain causing water heaping on concrete slabs and roof gutters, the dengue mosquito finding alternate breeding grounds to patients’ unawareness of carrying the disease were attributed to the increase, according to the Media Secretary to the Health Ministry W.M.D. Wanninayake.
“Most adults are prone to dengue because they do not take contraction of fever seriously until the disease has got out of control,” observed Wanninayake who cautioned that people should be more conscious of the dengue threat since the fever could last for one year.
“The dengue virus in the body has four stages – dengue-1, dengue 2, dengue-3 and dengue-4 and once it reaches stage 3 and 4, saving a patient is remote. Therefore, if someone has a temperature running for over two days should immediately seek treatment from any government hospital which has a separate High Dependency fever Units for dengue patients,” he advised.
Wanninayake, however, pointed out that the positive factor in the anti-dengue drive was that despite the disease continuing to be at alarming proportions the health authorities had been able to bring down the mortality rate to 18 of the 25 districts outside Colombo which had recorded an 8024 drop in the year 2011 as compared to the year 2010.
Of this amount, six districts had been affected with Matara and Kilinochchi recording a 16 per cent increase each respectively and Kegalle 10 per cent, Nuwara-Eliya 06 per cent and Ampara 02 per cent. The dengue mosquito finding alternate breeding sites with a case in example being 2000 of 9000 water wells being the ground for laying eggs is another headache the authorities are facing.
The intensified anti-dengue campaign has seen a special World Health Organisation medical consultant, Dr. Siri Penn working in Sri Lanka educating local medical staff on patient management and treatment protocol. There are 50 hospitals with High Dependency Fever Units set up specially to combat with dengue.
http://www.nation.lk/2011/12/25/news12.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment