Places of religious worship, some luxury hotels breed dengue - Survey

Almost all places of religious worship and luxury hotels in the Western Province maintain potential dengue mosquito breeding grounds in their premises, a sample survey conducted by the entomological unit of the Medical Research Institute has revealed.

Two schools, 31 places of worship and 15 hotels and tourist resorts were subjected to this sample survey conducted in the Colombo, Gampaha and Kalutara districts on June 1 and almost all of them had potential mosquito breeding grounds, said a spokesman for the Health Ministry yesterday.

The spokesman said of the 31 places of worship inspected 25 had potential mosquito breeding places while the two schools surveyed had fish tanks, blocked gutters, indoor refrigerators and plastic ware with a high tendency of providing breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

All the 15 hotels and tourist resorts inspected were teeming with potential mosquito breeding places.

These included refrigerators, air conditioners, rexine tanks, broken plastic furniture, earthen pots fixed to the electrical circuit and other plastic ware.

Among the potential mosquito breeding spots found in places of worship were empty coconut shells, plastic ware, water receptacles, bamboo pieces and cemented tanks.

Owners of these luxury hotels and heads of schools and places of worship were severely warned to destroy all such potential breeding grounds with immediate effect and that strict legal action would be taken against them if they failed to comply with the order. It was also pointed out that these breeding places would be ideal for filaria mosquitoes too and the campaign to completely eliminate filaria from the country too would fail if they continued to maintain mosquito breeding places in their compounds.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena has pointed out that certain institutions have still failed to support the activities of the Dengue control month implemented by the Ministry in collaboration with the Presidential Task Force on Dengue Control.

PHIs and other officials engaged in dengue control activities have also earned the ire of certain people.

The minister has requested the people to co-operate with the PHIs and other officers visiting their homes and institutions by considering them as their friends.