Colombo – IOM last week supported a Ministry of Health training for over 100 nurses and paramedics in managing patients with mosquito-borne dengue fever at Vavuniya General Hospital.

The training, which followed an earlier workshop for health workers on outbreak preparedness, hospital surveillance, surge capacity and preventative interventions, was delivered by specialists in infectious diseases, paediatrics and vector control and follows a major, nationwide outbreak of the disease in Sri Lanka last year.

In Vavuniya district, where thousands of internally displaced people (IDPs) have been living in the Menik Farms camps, which were set up on cleared jungle land in early 2009, some 1,500 suspected cases and 22 deaths were reported.

The training, which will be followed by another programme to improve the clinical competencies of over 100 medical officers in managing patients with dengue and dengue hemorrhagic fever, is part of an IOM-supported comprehensive Ministry of Health dengue preparedness strategy for the district.

Other components include an entomological survey, residual spraying, district-wide environmental clean-up drives to reduce mosquito breeding sites, a waste-management program, health promotion programmes via trained IDP health volunteers, health information dissemination (via posters and leaflets) and support to the hospital surveillance system.

IOM’s humanitarian health interventions, which are currently funded by the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), have also paid for medical equipment, including multi-parameter monitors, electronic foetal monitors and incubators for both the surgical and gynaecology units at Vavuniya General Hospital.

The large referral hospital serves the entire Vavuniya district, including the IDP sites, and is also the primary referral hub for the neighbouring conflict-affected districts of Killinochchi and Mullativu.

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For more information please contact: Richard Danziger, IOM Colombo, Tel: +94 (0)11 5325338, E-mail: rdanziger@iom.int  or Kolitha Wickramage, IOM Colombo, Tel: +94 (0)11 5325338, E-mail: kwickramage@iom.int