Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Colombo (Agenzia Fides) – It was reported that around 192 people have died from dengue fever in the first seven and a half months of this year. The total number of infected people came to more than 26,824 and there can be no doubt that the entire population of Sri Lanka is in critical danger. But there still does not appear to be any visible, practical or successful plan to deal with the spread of this killer disease that has effected rich and poor. Dengue has spread to almost all districts in the country. In particular the disease is threatening the entire population from Jaffna North to Matara South and from Batticaloa East to Colombo West and Kandy Central. Significant outbreaks of dengue fever tend to occur every five or six months according to the records. In the second half of the year 2009 Sri Lanka experienced the most alarming situation ever before by having 349 deaths, while having around 22,000 infected patients. Prevailing climatic condition, environmental pollution, rapid urbanization, overcrowding of cities and careless human practices are providing for rapid breeding of the mosquitoes and spreading of the disease. The disease is now endemic in more than 100 countries and has particularly spread in many tropical areas like northern Argentina, northern Australia, Bangladesh, Barbados, Bolivia, Belize, Brazil, Cambodia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, French Polynesia, Guadeloupe, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Laos, Malaysia, Melanesia, Mexico, Micronesia, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Samoa, Western Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad, Venezuela and Vietnam, and increasingly in southern China. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the most seriously affected areas are in Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific. some 2.5 billion people, two fifths of the world's population, are now at risk from dengue and estimates that there may be 50 million cases of dengue infection worldwide every year. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 31/8/2010)
