The risk of dengue has not completely subsided even though cases are currently being reported at a relatively low level, the National Dengue Control Unit has said.
Community Physician Dr Prashila Samaraweera made the remarks at a media briefing at the Health Promotion Bureau, Ada Derana reported.
She urged the public to remain vigilant and to pay close attention to places within their own premises where dengue mosquitoes could breed.
The warning signal to watch
Dr Samaraweera noted that in some districts an increase in the mosquito population is observed first, followed by a rise in dengue cases. That sequence is the operative point of the briefing: falling case numbers are a lagging indicator, and vector density turns before the caseload does.
The numbers behind the warning
The caution follows a sharp fall in reported infections. August closed with 10,157 cases, barely a third of July’s 29,964 and well below June’s 21,533, taking the year to 95,493. The death toll has held at 72, a case-fatality rate the unit put at 0.076 per cent.
Daily case numbers had already dropped roughly 80 per cent from their July peak during the second half of August. Fifty Medical Officer of Health divisions remain classified as high-risk.
Why the timing matters
The second inter-monsoon rains are expected from October. The Education Ministry has instructed schools to run dengue control programmes before the new term begins, and forecasters have warned of higher-than-normal rainfall later in the year under prevailing El Niño conditions — the conditions in which breeding sites multiply.
Update, September 4: the year passes 96,000, and wards stay full
The National Dengue Control Unit published a fuller statistical release on Friday putting the year’s total at 96,040 cases, Ada Derana reported. The death toll remains 72, and 50 Medical Officer of Health areas are still classified as high-risk.
The release also gave the geographic breakdown missing from Wednesday’s briefing. By province, the Western Province accounts for more than half the national caseload at 50,760 infections, followed by the Southern (13,931), Central (8,788) and Sabaragamuwa (7,910) provinces. By district, Gampaha leads with 20,444 cases, ahead of Colombo (19,008), Kandy (7,043), Kalutara (6,181) and Matara (6,154).
The new release puts August at 10,155 cases, two fewer than the 10,157 the unit gave at the start of the month. Neither figure was flagged as a revision.
Hospitals have not felt the fall yet
The Daily Mirror, reporting the same briefing on Friday, added detail no other outlet carried: daily case numbers that peaked at around 1,000 have now dropped to roughly 500, but hospital sources told the paper that dengue treatment wards at several state hospitals remain congested despite the decline.
That is the practical qualification to the fall in reported infections — the caseload has halved without yet relieving pressure on the wards.
Not reported
Neither outlet named the districts where mosquito densities are rising — the specific warning signal Dr Samaraweera raised — or said whether the unit is planning a new island-wide inspection campaign. Neither identified the hospitals still reporting congestion, and neither explained the two-case revision to the August total.
