The International Chamber of Commerce Sri Lanka (ICCSL) has taken up several measures for the prevention of dengue by launching an awareness campaign in an effort to reduce the incidence of the disease. 

ICCSL has communicated with all the business and industry chambers in Sri Lanka about the danger of dengue and how to prevent and what easy steps they should follow every day until it is no longer a problem. ICCLS has passed this message to all the BOI companies, stock exchange companies, banks, manufacturing companies, printing companies and various other organisations in Sri Lanka with the request of educating their workers and their families and friends. 

ICCSL believes that if this process works out well, they can make a great contribution towards the reduction of dengue patients at the first stage. In the second stage they want to create a regular check list to be followed by every person in the society. ICCSL noted that if all sectors work hand in hand and create awareness in the society, the number of dengue patients could reduce within a short period of time.    

   
ICCSL Chairman Keerthi Gunawardane said that “being a responsible chamber we saw that an awareness programme on dengue was the need of the hour and we acted on it. Constant reminders must be done because people sometimes forget to destroy dengue breeding places due to hectic lifestyles. Further we need to understand that mosquitoes that carry the virus do not come from outside, rather they develop from household things like flower-pots, water coolers, or rejected tyres left on the rooftop or in the corner of the garden. So we must ensure that there is no such place where water is stagnant for sometime.” 

The Health Ministry has warned that dengue has now entered a pandemic stage as the resurgence of the mosquito-borne menace has killed over 240 people and affected 80,000 so far in this year compared to a total of 51,000 cases reported in 2016.