For a long time, Sri Lanka was a leader in the region in two key areas – public health and civic conservancy. Soon after, Sri Lanka faced one of the worst floods and landslips in recent years. The increase in the number of cases has “shaken up” Sri Lanka’s public health machinery, said Preshila Samaraweera, a Consultant Community Physician attached to Sri Lanka’s National Dengue Control Unit. Sri Lanka, after all, is a country that the World Health Organization declared malaria-free last year, hailing its public health strategies for the remarkable achievement. Social scientist Kalinga Tudor Silva, who has authored a widely-cited account on the social history of malaria in Sri Lanka, blames the government’s top-down approach in responding to dengue.

Source: The Hindu July 02, 2017 00:55 UTC