Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena and Economic Development Minister Basil Rjapaksa opened what is billed to be the world's best centre for Clinical Management of Dengue and Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF) at the Negombo Base Hospital built at a cost of Rs. 59 million yesterday, a Health Ministry spokesman said.

The spokesman said this centre is to be named the Collaboration Centre for Dengue by WHO during its Convention on Dengue which will take place in Colombo next month.

The centre offers the world's best care for dengue patients, especially dengue patients suffering from DHF and operate as a regional training centre for specialist doctors. The Sri Lankan government funded this project. The centre offers the best care for dengue and DHF patients. The centre is equipped with world's best and latest medical equipment, facilities and technologies.

It has 20 beds, ICU and all the other facilities. The Health Ministry has already established High Dependency Units (HDU) at 50 state hospitals to treat dengue patients.

The number of HDU will be increased to 100 to offer specialised care for dengue patients. It now only takes 30 minutes for a blood test to diagnose dengue, the spokesman said.

Sri Lanka has been able to manage dengue patients successfully compared with other countries affected by dengue fever.

At the moment the dengue death rate has dropped to 0.3. Dengue deaths have drastically decreased due to specialised foreign training provided to Sri Lanka medical professionals and improvement of patient care facilities.

The 0.3 percent of deaths were reported due to patients' negligence such as seeking treatment after developing DHF or Dengue Shock Syndrome, he added.

Source:www.dalynews.lk