Patients receiving treatment for Dengue have gone down considerably. However Health officials warn of a spike with the rains.
A total of 937 dengue patients are receiving in-house medical treatment at hospitals at the moment and the number of dengue patients have been gone down by around 90 percent, Health Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne said.
Addressing the gathering after handing over appointment letters to 700 new dengue control field assistants and 250 junior health work assistants, Minister Senaratne said 500 field assistants were recruited in the past and Cabinet approval was been received to recruit another 1000. Dengue can reach epidemic levels again with on going rain,he said.
Minister Senaratne said the Opposition Leader is supporting all the good work of the Government and is now providing the leadership of the dengue control activities in the North. The prices of 298 brands of medicine have gone down due to the price reduction of 48 commonly used drugs. There are protests against setting up private medical collages but there are private medical collages in countries like China, Vietnam and Cambodia. One doctors’ trade union blames me because they had been paid for that, but other trade unions work with me to solve professional issues, he said.