Dissenting politics, all out conflict and social polarisation notwithstanding, Sri Lanka’s people have one overriding unifier. Three vicious diseases, the viral flu, Dengue and Chikungunya dealt the citizenry a massive blow over the last two months, equalising them all, north, south, east and west, in one debilitating sweep.
Every man on the street will testify that at least one member of his family was struck by one of three dreaded viral fevers and hospitals continue to struggle with the hordes of people being admitted every day.
The viral fevers have reached epidemic proportions, affecting not only an isolated district or province, but raging throughout the island, striking even in displacement camps in the east – as if they didn’t have enough problems already. Both Chikungunya and Dengue are mosquito borne diseases, resulting from poor environmental conditions and high pollution levels that that encourage the breeding of disease carrying insects. The Health Ministry, many of whose officials have also been taken ill during the period of the epidemic, has maintained deafening silence in the face of a mounting health crisis. In fact, an overly-hasty statement by the Ministry claiming that Chikungunya was not prevalent in Sri Lanka had them all looking like right royal fools just a fortnight later, when hundreds of patients were diagnosed with the fever. In a country with a more civic-minded populace, the virulence and proportions of the epidemic would have led to class action law suits being filed against the municipal authorities and the health services departments, for negligence and failure of duty.
Indeed today, we are an ailing people, not least because of a diseased polity. Welfare is the least of this regime’s problems, too busy with politicking, corrupt practices and a very expensive war. More than two months after the diseases raised their ugly heads and a large faction of the population was afflicted, President Mahinda Rajapaksa has finally decided to appoint a task force to look into mosquito-borne diseases and find ways to eradicate them.
Too little too late, some might say. Over the past year, 47 people have already died from Dengue and more than 11,000 cases have been reported from hospitals all over the country. In November and December alone, there were more than 2000 cases reported. With the epidemic showing no sign of abating, the authorities have now been made to ponder the wisdom of reopening schools as scheduled fearing further spread of the diseases.
It has taken the government an awfully long time to wake up and smell the coffee. And that too it is reported, only after half of the President’s staff was indisposed as a result of one of the three fevers.
If the task force is going to be productive, they would have to start with ensuring that the local administrations have the necessary equipment and man power to fight the problem. The Colombo Municipal Council currently possesses only seven fumigating machines to spray in high risk breeding areas, and only eight men to man them, although the requirement to serve the whole city is 25 machines. As a result, the delays in attending to public requests have been almost ridiculous.
The Health Ministry ought, if it does not already, have made a few new year’s resolutions. Public health is no trivial matter and its pathetic state affects the country’s overall productivity and finally the state coffers. Swiss Philosopher and poet, Henri-Frederic Amiel once said that health is the first of all liberties.’ The Rajapaksa administration cannot afford to speak of other freedoms before first and foremost ensuring this one.

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Whispers of a new year

For the most part, 2006 has been a turbulent year. A year of big highs and depressing lows. The nation waited with bated breath as Geneva I and II unfolded and we all watched, captivated, as little Mayumi Raheem did her country proud and became the face of the South Asian Games in October. And there were tears too: for the child victims of Sencholai and Somapura and the hundreds of thousands of people who were displaced in the north-east fighting that dominated the headlines in the last half of the year.
Tonight, we bid 2006 goodbye and usher in 2007, a new year that will no doubt be filled with tears and laughter of its own. Let us strive not to repeat the mistakes of the past and look ahead resolute and convinced that we can make things better.
The Nation hopes 2007 will prove a happier year all around; that we will see less death and dissension and more hope of a prosperous and peaceful tomorrow for Sri Lanka.