Cleanse-D – Quarantine

Dengue is a fatal mosquito-born disease, causing hundreds of deaths annually in Sri Lanka. Stating the latest statistics from 1st of January to 7th of July 2017, the Epidemiology Unit of the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Sri Lanka reported 80,732 Dengue cases, including 215 deaths. In rainy seasons, controlling the spread of Dengue has become a challenging task for health authorities. During these seasons, Health authorities seek the assistance of the general public to control the spread of this disease.

Prevention depends on control and protection from the bites of the mosquito that transmits the disease. World Health Organization recommends an Integrated Vector Control program, consisting of five elements including an integrated approach to disease control to maximize use of resources. According to this WHO guideline, we have conducted three successive phases under the project Cleanse-D.

In WHO’s advice to control Dengue disease, it states that prevention and control rely on reducing the breeding of mosquitoes through source reduction (removal and modification of breeding sites) and reducing human-vector contact through adult control measures. Focusing on this aspect, we have conducted the second phase of the Cleanse-D – project ‘Quarantine’ at Negombo District General Hospital.

In this phase, our main focus was to prevent the spread of disease from infected people. Although Dengue virus cannot spread directly from one person to another, a Dengue infected person can infect non-infected mosquitoes. According to the hospital administration, there was a tendency of healthy people around the hospital and other hospital wards being infected during Dengue mosquito breeding seasons. Covering hospital wards by means of insect nets is the primary method to minimize this scenario from taking place, according to the hospital administration.

In Cleanse-D phase 2 – project ‘Quarantine’, Rotaract Club of Alumni of University of Moratuwa took the responsibility of gathering required details to carry out a preliminary estimation. Five Rotaractors participated to get measurements in hospital premises, covering five wards including maternity wards and pediatric wards. Members of Rotaract Club of Alumni of University of Moratuwa carried out a preliminary estimation for the execution of the project from the collected data. The quotations were handed over to the hospital administration for further evaluations and execution of the project.

More photographs: Flickr

By Rtr. Pasan Kandamby