Public Health Inspectors Signal Withdrawal from Key Disease Prevention Duties
The Sri Lanka Public Health Inspectors' Association has issued a stern warning to health authorities, threatening to withdraw its members from all dengue prevention and control activities following a dispute centred on alleged irregularities at the Katunayake Airport Health Office.
Allegations of Administrative Shortcomings
The association has raised serious concerns over what it describes as significant administrative lapses and improper conduct at the airport health facility. Members of the association argue that these issues have gone unaddressed for an unacceptable period of time, prompting them to escalate their grievances through the threat of a formal withdrawal from field operations.
Public Health Inspectors, commonly known as PHIs, play a central role in Sri Lanka's front-line response to dengue fever, conducting inspections, identifying mosquito breeding sites, and coordinating community-level control efforts across the country.
Potential Impact on Public Health
A withdrawal from dengue control activities by PHIs could have serious consequences for public health, particularly as Sri Lanka continues to battle recurring outbreaks of the mosquito-borne illness. Health experts have long recognised the PHI cadre as indispensable to the nation's disease surveillance and prevention infrastructure.
The association has urged the relevant health authorities to address the situation at the Katunayake Airport Health Office promptly and transparently, warning that failure to act will leave them with no choice but to proceed with the planned withdrawal.
Calls for Urgent Resolution
Health sector observers have called on the Ministry of Health to intervene swiftly to resolve the dispute before it escalates further. With dengue remaining a persistent public health challenge in Sri Lanka, any disruption to inspection and prevention work could put vulnerable communities at heightened risk.
No official response from the Ministry of Health had been issued at the time of reporting.
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PHI officers doing important work, dont use them as pawns in some admin drama.
what irregularities? goverment should explain properly before we judge PHIs.
while they fighting like this dengue cases going up. ppl suffering.
exactly, patients dont care about office politics no?