During the past 10 months of this year, about 9,875 positive dengue patients have been detected from the Kurunegala district alone and they have taken medical treatments from government hospitals of the Kurunegala District.
However, about 22 of them have died from dengue during this period according to the records of the hospitals, said Kurunegala District Health Services Director Dr. Gamini Wimalaratne. Among the dead patients, there were several students as well, he said. Consequently, 80 percent of students don’t attend government schools within the Kurunegala MC area at present.
Meanwhile, a joint search operation was conducted by both Department of Health Services of the North Western Province (NWP) and the NWP Department of Education, in several government school premises in the Kurunegala urban area on November 4 and seven leading schools of them were found to be have mosquito-breeding grounds infested with mosquito larvae.
The school premises where mosquito-breeding grounds were found were from Kurunegala Sir John Kotalawele MV, Lakdas De Mel MV, Wayamba Royal College, Maliyadewa Boys’ College, and St. Anne’s College in Kurunegala. This special Dengue control operation was conducted by Special Government Dengue Control Unit under the guidance of NWP-PC Health Services Provincial Director Dr. N. Fareed.
All errant school heads who had mosquitoes within their school premises would be warned over their negligence and all schools within the NWP would be instructed to launch shramadana campaigns to destroy mosquitoes with the help of parents, teachers, pupils, past pupils and volunteers, said Kurunegala Senior Director of Education W. M. Balasooriya, yesterday.
About 125 health officials had participated in this operation.