SRI LANKA: Dengue spread slows in north
COLOMBO, 11 March 2010 (IRIN) - The spread of Dengue fever has eased in Sri Lanka's conflict-affected north, but health officials warn continued vigilance is necessary.
Since the beginning of this year, more than 2,000 cases of the mosquito-borne infection have been reported in Jaffna and Vavuniya districts, fuelled largely by late monsoon rains at the end of 2009.
According to the Ministry of Health's Epidemiology Unit, 22 cases were reported in Jaffna in the first 10 days of March.
This is a substantial drop from January and February, when more than 800 cases were reported each month.
"It's a significant drop and we feel that the trend will continue," Hasitha Tissera, a government health official at the unit told IRIN in Colombo. "The number of infections is likely to go down this month."
Meanwhile, a drop in the number of cases in Vavuniya has also been reported.
In January, 336 Dengue cases were registered, followed by 91 last month and 10 so far this month.
Large numbers of civilians displaced by the decades-long civil war that ended in May 2009 still live in Vavuniya.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), as of 8 March, more than 104,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) remained in camps in Jaffna, Vavuniya and Mannar districts.
Of these, 99,653 are in the Menik Farm in Vavuniya, while more than 170,000 have returned to their homes.
"Towards the end of 2009, the northeast monsoon accelerated the spread of the disease, but thankfully there were fewer deaths, despite the infections going up," Tissera said.
When Dengue was first reported in Vavuniya in September 2009, WHO and the Ministry of Health noted that easier access for civilians and others to the north could also increase infection.
"Because of the 'free movement', there is a very high chance [of] the spread of dengue among IDPs also," a communicable disease update from the first week of December by the WHO and Health Ministry stated.
Increased Awareness
To mitigate the disease's spread, health authorities began an aggressive awareness campaign in mid-2009.
"There is a lot of attention paid by local health officials on Dengue spread and it has created more awareness among ordinary people," Tissera noted.
The latest WHO Health Cluster Situation report released on 8 March states that combined efforts by national and local health officials have helped to keep the disease in check.
However, health experts warn that tyres, discarded canisters and even flower pots with excess water continue to serve as deadly breeding grounds.
Authorities have launched awareness campaigns and house visits by health inspectors to help educate the public.
The 2009 epidemic
Dengue spread to epidemic levels island-wide in Sri Lanka in 2009 with more than 32,000 infections and 300 deaths, the Epidemiology Unit reported.
The north was not, however, badly affected.
"The districts of Kandy, Colombo, Gampaha, Kegalle and Kurunegala, (in the central and western areas of the country) have been the worst affected," the Epidemiology Unit said in a Weekly Epidemiology Report released in December 2009 that dealt with the Dengue spread.
However it warned: "Although these are potentially high-risk districts, the current tendency is for the disease to spread in other areas as well."
When the number of reported Dengue cases began to increase last year, health authorities noted that epidemic levels are observed every four years.
"Dengue fever has been endemic in Sri Lanka for several decades. Epidemics ... have been observed every two to three years, and in 2004 a large outbreak of Dengue occurred with 15,467 cases and 88 deaths," the December report said.
According to the WHO, the incidence of Dengue has grown dramatically. Some 2.5 billion people - two fifths of the world's population - are now at risk. It estimates there may be 50 million infections worldwide annually.
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Theme(s): (IRIN) Health & Nutrition, (IRIN) Refugees/IDPs
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Copyright © IRIN 2010
This material comes to you via IRIN, the humanitarian news and analysis service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations or its Member States.
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