Even though Sri Lanka was certified as a Malaria free country by the World Health Organization (WHO) in September last year, the Government has allocated Rs. 30 million this year in order to prevent Malaria from affecting the country again, Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said.
Addressing a press conference held at the Government Information Department Auditorium in Colombo today he said that usually the government allocates Rs. 10 million for malaria control every year.
But the Government has allocated over Rs 83 million for malaria as recurrent expenditure. The WHO has formulated a 15 year plan commencing from 2015 to 2030 to eliminate Malaria.
According to Minister Senaratne, the last death due to indigenous Malaria was reported from Sri Lanka in 2007 and the last Malaria case due to Indigenous Malaria was reported from Sri Lanka in 2012.
But recently a malaria patient was found from Colombo South Teaching Hospital (Kalbowila) and he was a foreigner.
429,000 Malaria patients have died in the world in 2015.
Malaria can be spread in Sri Lanka again from one or more of those countries through tourists, business travellers, members of armed forces sent abroad as peace keepers, refugees arrive in Sri Lanka from foreign countries etc.
It is important to obtain the vaccination against malaria before leaving for affected countries, he added.
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