Sri Lanka Army celebrating its 61 years of founding this year has organized a series of community oriented events to coincide with the Army Day on 10th October. The soldiers who eradicated terrorism from the country through offensive operations have this time lined up to launch an all out offensive against Dengue outbreak on a concept of the Commander of the Army Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya.
The Army will join hands with the Ministry of Health in conducting the National Dengue Control Week which is scheduled to be conducted island wide from 7th October. In this soldiers will assist health authorities, local government authorities and general public in searching for mosquito breading places, cleaning areas and conducting various other dengue control projects as well as enlightening the public on dengue prevention. Already instructions have been passed by the Commander of the Army to army camps island wide on this and the relevant health and other authorities are requested to seek assistance from the nearest army camp in this regard.
Apart from the Dengue Control Week, Army has already conducted many other programs to clean the environment and eliminate mosquito breading places in main cities of the country in order to eradicate dengue and will continue the effort even after.
Army alone cannot reach the expected results in this war against Dengue and the public assistance is mandatory. Whole country stood behind Army in its war against terrorism, and now the Army will stand by the country in the battle against Dengue.
Sri Lanka Army has always been the first to react in national disasters and it was outshone in the first hours of the 2004 Tsunami which devastated most of South East Asia and left the Sri Lankan coastal line in ruins killing hundreds of thousands of people.
