Health and Indigenous Medicine Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne yesterday offered a special bouquet to all media institutions for rallying around his Ministry’s call and helping in the dengue eradication programme launched by the Ministry.
He said all media institutions set aside commercial gain and devoted their programmes to educate the people and rally support for the dengue eradication programme and he wished to thank them profusely for lending this assistance towards this worthy cause.
Minister Dr. Senaratne expressed these sentiments participating in a dengue eradication drive in China Fort Beruwala to inaugurate the programme in the Kalutara district.
The Health Minister said although Non-Communicable Diseases was a major threat the immediate challenge facing his Ministry was the burgeoning dengue epidemic. Although the number of dengue patients had increased the ministry had been able to restrict the dengue deaths at 0.3 percent this spoke well for the efficient health care and treatment service maintained by the ministry. He said so far the number of patients reported stood at around 90,000.
A visiting WHO team which studied the situation in the country had submitted an action plan to reduce the number of patients by 50 percent within four weeks.
The Who had also pledged financial support the this action plan and it was this action plan the Ministry implemented presently.
After the inaugural ceremony the Tri-Forces and Police personnel fined health workers on house inspections to detect and destroy mosquito breeding places and educate the people.
Western Province Chief Minister Isura Devapriya, Provincial Councillors Prassana Sanjeewa and Isthikar Jameel, Director General of Health Services Dr. Jayasundara Bandara and other officials were also present on the occasion.
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