Raising awareness to prevent the rise of dengue in rural Sri Lanka

29/06/2016 – Monaragala, Sri Lanka: The Monaragala Branch of the Sri Lanka Red Cross (SLRCS) has launched a door to door campaign in association with Public Health Officials of the district in order to raise awareness among residents in the area on how to prevent the rise of dengue.

Dengue has been one of the health concerns in the aftermath of recent floods that hit the area. The Monaragala district is one of the most rural areas in Sri Lanka located 250 kms from capital Colombo in the Uva Province. The district is the 2nd largest in Sri Lanka in landmass, however most people living within the district falls below the poverty line.

In last year alone over 400 cases of dengue were reported within the district. One of the most concerns in the area is that when people gets infected with dengue, they do not tend to seek medical attention immediately thus worsening the condition that would lead towards fatalities.

The campaign that began from the Badalkumbura town in Monaragala was aiming at raising awareness among the public by means of educating them through posters, leaflets and cleaning activities.

Volunteers from the branch along with Government Health Officials visited residences within the area and inspected whether they are breeding grounds for dengue mosquitoes. If the environment is not clean, then our volunteers will aid the residents to clean the environment while educating them about how they can get dengue in the future.