India has donated 500 litres of technical-grade Malathion to Sri Lanka to support dengue control operations, with Health and Mass Media Minister Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa receiving the consignment from Indian High Commissioner Santosh Jha at the Health Ministry on Tuesday.
Jayatissa said Sri Lanka had faced a recent shortage of Malathion and requested assistance from India, which responded within days. “India has responded to Sri Lanka’s call for urgent assistance,” the minister said, thanking the Indian government and the High Commissioner for the speed of the response.
Jha said India would always be ready to assist Sri Lanka, and expressed interest in expanding health cooperation between the two countries.
Why Malathion
The Health Ministry said dengue-carrying mosquitoes in some regions have developed resistance to existing insecticides, making alternative chemicals essential to the national control strategy. The Malathion will be used in targeted fogging operations in high-risk areas to cut adult mosquito populations.
Malathion is an organophosphate insecticide endorsed by the World Health Organization for vector control and has been used internationally against disease-carrying mosquitoes for decades.
The outbreak
Jayatissa said Sri Lanka had recorded more than 88,000 dengue cases since January 1 and more than 60 deaths, attributing the sharp spread through June and July to adverse weather.
The National Dengue Control Unit’s official tally, reported by Ada Derana, put the cumulative total at 86,947 cases and 62 deaths as of August 3 — a case fatality rate of 0.07 per cent. Gampaha District accounts for roughly 21 per cent of all infections, ahead of Colombo on 17,187 cases and Kandy on 6,082.
Weekly case numbers have been easing since late July, but hospital wards in the worst-affected districts remain over capacity.
Sources: NewsFirst, Daily Mirror, Ada Derana.
