Team Sri Lanka down with Dengue
The Sri Lanka team at the South Asian Games was hit by an outbreak of the dengue epidemic, with seven athletes being hospitalized here in Nepal. The female footballer Gayathri Nanayakkara is in a critical condition in the ICU.
Four track and field athletes, Nadeesha Ramanayaka, MU Kumara , SPJ Bandula and Amasha de Silva were also infected, where Nadeesha and Kumara got sick before their events and Sri Lanka had to replace them at the last minute. Paddler Bimadi Bandara and Kabadi Player GKM Madhavi are the other athletes to be affected. Most of the athletes were admitted to the Blue Cross Hospital near the main stadium while Madhavi and Amashawere admitted to Wayodya Hospital.
Gayathri was in such a critical condition that she was flown to Kathmandu from Phokara, while her parents flew over from Sri Lanka.
Nadeesha Ramanayaka who was discharged from hospital with Bimadi Bandara discharged in the afternoon had to be readmitted to the same hospital as her condition turned from bad to worse.
The team doctor from the Institute of Sports Medicine, Dr. Lal Ekanayake, received help from the doctors of the Blue Cross Hospital where the athletes received treatment while conducting video conference consultations with the IDH hospital fever specialist Dr. Ananda Wijewickrama.
Apart from those who were admitted several other players and coaches also suffered from fever attacks and have been treated by Dr. Ekanayaka.
According to the observations made by Dr. Ekanayake, the dengue fever was initially generated from Colombo, not Nepal. He said that the Sugathadasa Sports Hotel could have been the originating place of dengue as a total of five athletes were detected with the fever when they were housed prior to the SAG.
“I advise the authorities to properly clean the place and treat it medically before housing the athletes, as the Sugathadasa Sports Hotel was kept shut for a long period. But since no proper sanitary measures were taken before housing the athletes there and if that was the actual cause, then our athletes are suffering due to our own shortcomings,” said Dr. Ekanayaka.
The athletes too said they had encountered a problem with mosquitos while being housed in the Sugathadasa Sports hotel, where several of them got fever prior to their departure and weren’t in the best of shape before they competed in their events.
Most of the Sri Lankan contingent is already in Sri Lanka. A male and female beach volleyball player suffered from dengue at first, then three Basketball players were affected and they were followed by the two athletes where the number of dengue patient had increased to 13 with the likelihood that the number might increase.
