Dengue incidence and risk factors in the Kattankudy Medical Office of Health (MOH) division in Batticaloa during the 2009/2010 outbreak

Abstract

The increasing dengue epidemics are one of the priority health issues in the world. Recent dengue outbreaks in Sri Lanka caused lot of deaths and hospitalization. Kattankudy is an area in Batticaloa District of Sri Lanka was identified as a “high risk” area among 48 Medical Office of Health (MOH) and declared by the Government in September 2004. This MOH area is one of the densely populated areas in the country. The highest number of dengue cases reported in year 2009/2010. No studies have been carried out on dengue outbreaks in this area before and this study describe the dengue incidence and the association between the geographical location and rainfall pattern during the period of June 2009 to April 2010 in MOH division Kattankudy. This Study was conducted using 384 cases reported to MOH during the above period and geographical area divided as four Public Health Instructor (PHI) areas, Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques were used in mapping the individual houses to describe the spatial distribution of dengue cases of the 384 dengue reported cases. People in PHI - 3 and PHI -4 area were having high risk than PHI area 1 while no differences in risk was observed between PHI area 1 and 2. No association between gender of the patients and PHI area was identified. The incidence of cases increased after a lag of three to four weeks once rainfalls start to decrease. The ability to predict potential risk area, dengue outbreaks and mapping the spatial patterns facilitates dengue surveillance; prevention and control in MOH Kattankudy. Better understanding of the above will not only feed into operational policy for dengue control, but also provide fertile terrain for vaccine application strategies in the future.