Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Colombo (Agenzia Fides) – The spread of dengue hemorrhagic fever is declining in northern Sri Lanka, but health officials are wary to let their guard down and call for heightened vigilance. At the beginning of this year, over 2,000 cases of this infection transmitted by mosquito were recorded in the districts of Jaffna and Vavuniya, fueled further by the latest monsoon rains of the last months of 2009. According to the Epidemiology Unit of the Ministry of Health, 22 cases were reported in Jaffna during the first 10 days of March, showing a significant decrease compared with 800 cases reported in January and February respectively. Meanwhile, there was a decline also in Vavuniya, where in January there were 336 cases, 91 in February and 10 from the beginning of March until today. A large number of displaced civilians, victims of decades of the civil war that ended in May 2009, are still living in Vavuniya.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), on March 8, over 104,000 IDPs remained in camps in Jaffna, Mannar, and Vavuniya. Of these, 99,653 are in Menik Farm in Vavuniya, while over 170,000 have returned to their homes. Towards the end of 2009, the Northwest monsoon has accelerated the spread of the disease, however claiming very few lives. When dengue fever was reported for the first time in Vavuniya, in September 2009, the WHO and the Ministry of Health showed that the infection had spread considerably. To try to mitigate the infection, in mid-2009, health authorities launched an awareness campaign to try to educate the population with home visits by health inspectors.
According to the Epidemiology Unit, dengue fever reached epidemiological levels throughout Sri Lanka in 2009, with over 32,000 deaths and 300 infections. The northern part was not seriously affected. The districts of Kandy, Colombo, Gampaha, Kegalle, and Kurunegala (in central and western areas of the country) are the most severely affected. This haemorrhagic fever has been endemic in Sri Lanka for several decades. Every two to three years there are epidemics, and in 2004 there were 15,467 cases and 88 deaths. According to the WHO, the incidence rate of the disease has increased dramatically. About 2.5 billion people, two fifths of the entire world population, are at risk. Each year there are an estimated 50 million infections worldwide. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 18/3/2010)
