A media briefing led by Joint Opposition convener Professor G.L. Peiris was held today (02) at the political office on Flower Road in Colombo, discussing the ongoing spread of dengue.

Addressing the press briefing, former Health Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne said that dengue has now reached an epidemic level.

 He further stated:

“At present, dengue has reached an epidemic level. The last time it reached such a situation was in 2017. At that time, the World Health Organisation classified nearly half the world as a high-risk zone, including our country.

Under the Yahapalana government, we were able to completely eliminate six epidemic diseases in Sri Lanka. We eliminated malaria, filariasis, rubella, measles as well as neonatal tetanus transmitted from mother to child. We also eliminated mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS. In parallel, we faced dengue.

When our government started, cases had risen from around a 1,000 to nearly 50,000, and by 2017 it became even more severe.

To combat dengue, we spent USD 12.7 million. At that time, the exchange rate was Rs.152.50 per dollar, which equals about Rs. 1.936 billion.

We converted small hospitals around major hospitals into satellite hospitals. We turned all hospitals into dengue treatment centres. Other patients were allocated limited beds while most wards were used for dengue patients. We established High Dependency Units (HDUs) in paediatric wards.

We formed medical teams to be sent to smaller hospitals. If a particular area had a severe outbreak, teams from major hospitals were sent for emergency response. We also set up separate laboratories in OPDs of all hospitals and established care management protocols.

Together with the Ministry of Education, we even conducted home visits through MOH offices for children absent from school to check for dengue. We launched immediate home-based response and treatment programmes.”