IOM last week supported a Ministry of Health training for over 100
nurses and paramedics in managing patients with mosquito-borne
dengue fever at Vavuniya General Hospital.

The training, which followed an earlier workshop for health
workers on outbreak preparedness, hospital surveillance, surge
capacity and preventative interventions, was delivered by
specialists in infectious diseases, paediatrics and vector control
and follows a major, nationwide outbreak of the disease in Sri
Lanka last year.

In Vavuniya district, where thousands of internally displaced
people (IDPs) have been living in the Menik Farms camps, which were
set up on cleared jungle land in early 2009, some 1,500 suspected
cases and 22 deaths were reported.

The training, which will be followed by another programme to
improve the clinical competencies of over 100 medical officers in
managing patients with dengue and dengue hemorrhagic fever, is part
of an IOM-supported comprehensive Ministry of Health dengue
preparedness strategy for the district.

Other components include an entomological survey, residual
spraying, district-wide environmental clean-up drives to reduce
mosquito breeding sites, a waste-management program, health
promotion programmes via trained IDP health volunteers, health
information dissemination (via posters and leaflets) and support to
the hospital surveillance system.

IOM’s humanitarian health interventions, which are
currently funded by the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF),
have also paid for medical equipment, including multi-parameter
monitors, electronic foetal monitors and incubators for both the
surgical and gynaecology units at Vavuniya General Hospital.

The large referral hospital serves the entire Vavuniya district,
including the IDP sites, and is also the primary referral hub for
the neighbouring conflict-affected districts of Killinochchi and
Mullativu.

For more information please contact:

Richard Danziger

IOM Colombo

Tel: +94 (0)11 5325338

E-mail: "mailto:rdanziger@iom.int">rdanziger@iom.int 

or

Kolitha Wickramage

IOM Colombo

Tel: +94 (0)11 5325338

E-mail: "mailto:kwickramage@iom.int">kwickramage@iom.int