Australia to provide Rs. 118 mil. for dengue prevention

Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop announced a major Australian assistance to combat dengue fever in Sri Lanka, the President’s Media Division (PMD) said.

She made this announcement when she called on President Maithripala Sirisena at the President’s Official Residence in Colombo today (20).

Recalling that President Sirisena had made a special mention about the spreading of dengue and Chronic Kidney Disease in Sri Lanka during his recent state visit to Australia, Julie Bishop said that she was pleased to announce two programmes to assist Dengue prevention in Sri Lanka.

Foreign Minister Bishop stated that Australia would immediately provide AUD 475,000 (Rs. 58 million) to the World Health Organization  (WHO) to implement immediate dengue prevention, management and eradication programmes in Sri Lanka.

She stated that Australia would provide an additional sum of AUD 1 million (Rs. 118 million) for a research partnership between Australia’s Monash University and Sri Lanka’s Health Ministry, to test the introduction of naturally-occurring Wolbachia bacteria to eradicate Dengue fever from Sri Lanka.

Bishop said that the bacteria “prevent transmission of Dengue virus between humans”, and that it had shown success during the last six years in countries such as Brazil, Columbia, Australia, India, Vietnam and Indonesia where it was piloted.

The bacteriareportedly have the ability to block other mosquito-borne diseases such as Zika and Chikungunya as well.

President Sirisena expressed his gratitude to the Government of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and the people of Australia for providing such assistance at a critical time. He said that several agreements and Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) were arrived at during his visit to Australia, and added that the two countries should implement them expeditiously to ensure benefits to the people.

The Australian Foreign Minister thanked the President, the Sri Lankan Government and Sri Lanka Navy for their excellent cooperation extended to curb human smuggling in Australia. The President said that as he discussed during his visit to Australia, the two countries should extend this cooperation to curb illegal trafficking of drugs and narcotics.

Julie Bishop added that over the years, more than 30,000 Sri Lankans had studied in Australia under the Colombo Plan and other programmes, and that currently, there were 7,500 Sri Lankan students in Australia. The 170,000 strong Sri Lankan origin persons living in Australia are a huge asset towards the boosting of bilateral ties, she said.

The Presidential media source also reported that the two parties had discussed the progress on the implementation of the reconciliation process.

Foreign Minister Ravi Karunanayake, Secretary to the President Austin Fernando, Foreign Secretary Esala Weerakoon, and Australian High Commissioner Bryce Hutchesson were also present at this occasion, PMD said.