by Emanthi Marambe and Ranil Dharmasena
Over 600 children suspected of dengue seek treatment from the Lady Ridgeway Children’s hospital daily, hospital sources said.

It is said that the majority of the patients are from Colombo and its suburbs. A spokesman for the hospital said that 50 percent of the patien ts are warded and the hospital is finding a severe space problem at present. By yesterday 24 children diagnosed of dengue are taking treatment at the Lady Ridgeway Hospital. The spokesman said that an eleven year old child suspected of having dengue died two days ago.

The government has declared a state of emergency throughout the country to control the dengue epidemic by enforcing stringent laws. A strong situation being that the breeding grounds for mosquitos are schools in Colombo and its environs.

The tendency for school children to become victims of dengue has increased recently. So far 15 deaths have been reported with over 2500 dengue patients reported from around the country.

To assess the latest situation we visited a number of schools. However we were disappointed as some schools had not even held a discussion about cleaning the school environs. Authorities keep pointing fingers at various people while garbage dumps can be seen in the school environs. Some schools did not even grant permission for us to enter.

At Sri Sangharaja School Colombo 10 and at Vihara Maha Devi Vidyalaya down Deans Road they have almost finished cleaning their environment. They have got the support of the parents as well to do the clean up.

The Principal of Ananda Balika Vidyalaya Mrs. S. Devendra expressed a completely different idea. She said that the sewerage system in the school is a few decades old and the school does not have the wherewithal to clean or repair it. Although they have informed the authorities and the Colombo Municipal Council still nothing tangible had been done to repair the system.

It was the opinion of two school principals that it is unfair to put the blame solely on the schools for the dengue outbreak. They said that the Colombo Municipal Council should take immediate action to clean the garbage dumps and prevent the breeding of mosquitos.