Abstract:
The increasing dengue epidemics are one of the priority health issues in the world.
Recent dengue outbreaks in Sri Lanka caused lot of deaths and hospitalization.
Kattankudy is an area in Batticaloa District of Sri Lanka was identified as a “high risk”
area among 48 Medical Office of Health (MOH) and declared by the Government in
September 2004. This MOH area is one of the densely populated areas in the country.
The highest number of dengue cases reported in year 2009/2010. No studies have been
carried out on dengue outbreaks in this area before and this study describe the dengue
incidence and the association between the geographical location and rainfall pattern
during the period of June 2009 to April 2010 in MOH division Kattankudy. This
Study was conducted using 384 cases reported to MOH during the above period and
geographical area divided as four Public Health Instructor (PHI) areas, Geographic
Information System (GIS) techniques were used in mapping the individual houses to
describe the spatial distribution of dengue cases of the 384 dengue reported cases. People
in PHI - 3 and PHI -4 area were having high risk than PHI area 1 while no differences
in risk was observed between PHI area 1 and 2. No association between gender of the
patients and PHI area was identified. The incidence of cases increased after a lag of
three to four weeks once rainfalls start to decrease. The ability to predict potential risk
area, dengue outbreaks and mapping the spatial patterns facilitates dengue surveillance;
prevention and control in MOH Kattankudy. Better understanding of the above will
not only feed into operational policy for dengue control, but also provide fertile terrain
for vaccine application strategies in the future.
