A total of 184,442 suspected dengue cases have been reported to the Epidemiology Unit of the Ministry of Health from all over the island, during the last 12 month of the year 2017.
The total for last year is more than three times higher than 2016. More than 320 deaths were also reported last year.
Approximately 41.53% of dengue cases were reported from the Western province. The highest numbers of dengue cases were reported during the 29 week of 2017.
“This situation warrants regular removal of possible mosquito breeding sites from the environment. It is also important to seek medical attention in the event of fever by day three of the illness,” it said.
According to the Epidemiology Unit, the highest number of cases was reported during the month of July (41,121) while the lowest was October (6,594).
Unsurprisingly the district with the most number of dengue cases last year is Colombo with 34,173 total cases while Gampaha comes second with 31,459 cases.
The unit said that based on sentinel site surveillance, the Dengue peak was observed during the months of June and July 2017.
Dengue is a viral infection transmitted by the bite of an infected mosquito. There are four closely related but antigenically different serotypes of the virus that can cause dengue (DEN1, DEN 2, DEN 3, DEN 4).
