Sri Lanka, Jan. 27 -- According to media reports last week, 74 staff members at the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital have been infected with dengue. A similar scenario was reported in late April, 2023 when 63 employees of the Dambulla Hospital contracted dengue.

In just the first three weeks of 2025, over 3,600 dengue cases and two fatalities have been reported. The National Dengue Control Unit confirmed 3,649 cases and two deaths in this short span. To put things into perspective, nearly 50,000 dengue cases were reported in Sri Lanka last year (2024), resulting in 24 deaths.

Here we are, still in January, with 11 months ahead of us.

Dengue is not a new phenomenon in Sri Lanka. The country experienced its worst outbreak in 2017, with 186,1...