The dengue epidemic which hit Sri Lanka last January is now under control and the death rate is zero. The number of dengue cases reported during the 36th week is only 49, the latest statistics of the Epidemiology Unit of the Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry says.
Environment and Natural Resources Minister Champika Ranawaka yesterday said, he will not withhold the Waste Management Project, that was started in Dompe by his ministry, because of unfair demonstrations and picketing campaigns staged against it by a few groups.
The Western Provincial Council (WPC) is planning to use wind power to illuminate Colombo city in association with Concurrent (India) Infrastructure Ltd an Indian based private company, while there is another plan in the pipeline to use wind power for the streetlamps islandwide.
An international web site giving information about Kandy to tourists had this to say in its concluding paragraph "the city is ugly and its air pollution unbearable". This is a serious matter since tourism in Kandy is affected by such adverse comments and furthermore, this situation greatly endangers the health of the citizens of Kandy, especially school children.
Environment and Natural Resources Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka addressing the Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change South Asian Sub Regional Meeting in Colombo yesterday said Sri Lanka would propose three amendments to the Kyoto Protocol because the present Carbon Emission cut included in it was not enough to save humanity in future.
A special committee tasked with finding out new strategies and solutions to overcome the garbage problem in the Colombo city has been appointed by Municipality Commissioner Bhadrani Jayawardana.
The committee has been advised to come out with a viable mechanism which would ensure the speedy collection of garbage in all six administrative zones in Colombo.
The Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry last month launched a massive program to combat dengue in 68 divisional secretariat divisions with the patronage of MOH offices, PHIs and Civil Defence Committees. Under this program, in Colombo district alone 23,100 houses were inspected and 6,138 of them were found to be mosquito breeding places.
Dr. Ajith Mendis, Director General of Health Services yesterday said that the first case of swine influenza had been detected in Sri Lanka. He identified the victim as an 8 year-old-boy from Australia, who had arrived in Colombo on June 14.
He said that the child had been admitted to the National Hospital for urgent medical attention.
Health authorities battled to contain the ever increasing dengue epidemic with an island wide surveillance and clearing programme yesterday while the number of dengue related deaths rose to 134 and the number of cases touched the 9,300 mark, health ministry source said.
The Health Ministry has issued summons on 367 people in the Colombo city limits who did not heed ministry instructions to clean their households and immediate environs.
The number of dengue patients continued to rise yesterday and the number of deaths remained at116 while health authorities battled to contain the epidemic on several fronts.
