The National Dengue Control Unit has made arrangements to hold an islandwide Dengue Control Program soon, as a large number of dengue patients have been reported from Colombo, Gampaha, Kalutara, Galle, Jaffna, Trincomalee and Ratnapura districts during past several weeks.
A Dengue Prevention Program will be held countrywide from March 29 to April 4. This year, 16,480 positive dengue patients have been reported countrywide and of them, 24 have died.
“All school premises and construction zones would be inspected to see whether they have mosquito breeding grounds. About 500 health field assistants are to be recruited to control the dengue epidemic including areas in the Colombo district,” said Chief Minister of the NWP-PC, Dharmasiri Dassanayake at a meeting of school principals of the Kurunegala and Puttalam districts at Kurunegala Chief Ministry recently.
The Chief Minister called on all school principals to act with responsibility to protect the student population from mosquito-related epidemics as some schoolchildren have become victims of dengue fever.
The Government will spend Rs. 15 million on this project, he said.