Colombo, June 21 (newsin.asia) – Sri Lanka’s Health Minister, Rajitha Senaratne on Wednesday said the government had appointed additional task force to clean up mosquito breeding places following concerns that dengue had become an epidemic.
Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne told a weekly media briefing here that the government had imported 500 smoking machines from Germany and an additional 1000 people had been deployed to assess and clean private and public premises in several districts.
Senaratne said the Hospitals too had been geared with all facilities to treat the infected patients.
“We hope to control the spread of dengue. However with June and July being the monsoon season we are trying our best to avoid all dengue breeding places,” Senaratne said.
Health workers on Tuesday warned that the country was facing a dengue epidemic with over 63,000 people affected by the virus and at least 200 people killed.
Health workers at the Epidemiology Unit said there was a tremendous rise in the Type 2 virus and urgent preventive and curative measures were ongoing to prevent the numbers from rising further.
Hospitals had also been geared with the necessary facilities to treat the patients and hospitals were working on equipping additional beds to treat emergency patients.
“Mosquito breeding places are abundant throughout the country. With 63,987 patients reported in the first six months of this year alone, what we are facing is an epidemic,” health workers at the Epidemiology Unit said.
The Colombo district recorded the highest number with 14,189 patients while Gampaha district recorded the second highest number with 9,370 patients.
The Trincomalee district, in eastern Sri Lanka, recorded a total of 4,318 dengue patients.
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