Sri Lanka, the neighboring island nation to India in South Asia, is a developing country making many efforts to increase its standard of living. One of these central efforts is the fight against disease and illness, which Sri Lanka has reduced with great success. Malaria, Leprosy and noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) have been reduced or eliminated from the country.

The Efforts

Disease in Sri Lanka comes in two forms: communicable diseases and NCDs. Considering the side of communicable diseases, Sri Lanka has taken great strides to reduce two of the most prevalent diseases within the nation: Malaria and Leprosy.

The Anti-Malaria Campaign (AMC) has taken on malaria and its prevalence within the region in full force. This initiative, supported by country collaborations, technical leadership and financial investments from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Global Health Fund, has supplemented a national budget dedicated to the fight against malaria.

Leprosy shares a similar story. Successful campaigns and efforts against the disease caused Sri Lanka to experience a considerable decline in the prevalence of leprosy in the years following 1983, with the introduction of multidrug therapy (MDT) by the WHO.

However, communicable diseases in Sri Lanka were only responsible for 14,265 deaths in the year 2019. In contrast, NCDs such as heart disease and diabetes were responsible for the deaths of 96,072 people in the same year.

Public Health in Sri Lanka

Public health in Sri Lanka relies not only on funding from the WHO and the Global Health Fund but also on grassroots efforts to educate the public about the dangers of a sedentary lifestyle. Managing NCDs requires a preventive care approach, leading to a reorganization of the country’s health care system through the globally funded Primary Health care System Strengthening Project (PSSP). This project aims to support the government in enhancing the utilization and quality of health care, with a primary focus on the detection and prevention of NCDs.

The Successes

Since the turn of the century, Sri Lanka has made excellent progress in reducing the prevalence of malaria—the total number of cases in Sri Lanka was reduced by 78%, from 22.9 million to 5 million. The budget from the Global Health Fund and the WHO supplemented the efforts to successfully eradicate malaria as a common disease in Sri Lanka.

Leprosy has also wavered greatly in recent years. Assisted by the creation of MDT by the WHO, the country achieved a WHO elimination goal of leprosy cases, yielding less than one for every 10,000 people in the population by the turn of the 21st Century. The formative research provided by outside organizations, along with the campaign’s efforts to increase social awareness about the disease and its communicability, successfully reduced the rate of Leprosy.

NCDs are also being addressed, however, in a drastically different manner than that of communicable diseases. The people in Sri Lanka have been informed of the dangers of communicable diseases yet are ill-informed of the dangers of a sedentary lifestyle and how being proactive is healthy for the body. This is being curbed through efforts established by the PSSP and its association with Primary Medical Care Institutions (PMCI).

Primary Medical Care Institutions

According to the World Bank, curative primary health care services in Sri Lanka are delivered mainly through PMCI. This includes district-level hospitals and Primary Medical Care Units situated around the nation. In March 2022, about 350 of the 1,030 PMCI in Sri Lanka were strengthened under the PSSP initiative. However, by the end of the project in 2023, this number reached a minimum of 550.

The lack of information regarding the dangers of a sedentary lifestyle is slowly being overturned through an increasingly active information campaign. Alongside this are initiatives to raise awareness of the importance of daily exercise and how a proper diet is beneficial to overall health. These efforts by the PSSP are effectively paving a path toward a healthier nation.

Final Remark

Sri Lanka has yet to eradicate diseases completely. Even with the successful efforts to combat malaria and leprosy, there is still a great risk of their return. Diseases are always on the cusp of coming back. However, with the continued dedication of organizations around the world and commitment from the leadership of Sri Lanka, it will always be at the forefront.

– Luke Scroggins

Luke is based in Dallas, TX, USA and focuses on Technology and Global Health for The Borgen Project.

Photo: Flickr