Abstract:
Dengue is a viral infection transmitted by the bite of an infected mosquito. The global
prevalence of dengue has increased dramatically in recent decades. Denguefever, dengue
hemorrhagic fever, and dengue shock syndrome (DSS) occur in over 100 countries and threaten
the health of more than 2.5 billion people in urban and peri-urban areas especially in south and
south East Asia including Sri Lanka. This study was conducted to find out the trends of
reporting dengue cases in all the administrative districts over the last decade. All 25 districts
were selected as study area.
Annual dengue incidence data for each district over a 10-year period from 2006 to 2015 and
Midyear population data of each year were collected. Then the number of cases per 1000 people
per month was calculated in each year and plotted in scatter plots and calculated the gradient of
linear trend line of each district. All statistical and graphical analyses were performed using
Microsoft Excel 2010. Reporting of dengue cases of all the 23 districts except Mathale and
Vavuniya shows the increasing trend over the past 10 years and it can be recognized as a
continues public health hazard in Sri Lanka. The gradients are ranging from 0.555 to -0.038.
All the 23 districts show the positive gradients of trendline. People who live in Colombo, Jaffna
and Gampaha districts are highly vulnerable for dengue fever. These finding indirectly
emphasize that the different efforts employed by the authorities to control dengue cases in the
country have less impact on dengue prevention. The researches have to be conducted to find
out the actual courses of spreading dengue over the island and controlling measures have to be
restructured to manage this public health hazard.
