BACKGROUND Telephone survey (TS) has been a popular tool for conducting health surveys, particularly in developed countries. However, the feasibility, and reliability of TS are not adequately explored in Sri Lanka. The main aim of this study is to assess the effectiveness of telephone-based survey in estimating the prevalence of common non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Sri Lanka. METHODS We...

Lanka, and emigrate to the UK in 1981. He worked at Manor and St Ebba’s hospitals as a consultant psychiatrist in learning disabilities from 1981 until 1995. Satkunam was born in May 1926 and educated in Jaffna, Northern Sri Lanka, and qualified in medicine in Colombo. He obtained his MRCPsych in 1963, completing postgraduate study at the Institute of Psychiatry, University of London, and retur...

One hundred forty-three cases of rhinosporidiosis, confirmed by smear or biopsy, treated in two major General Hospitals in Sri Lanka over a 14 year period (1995-2009) were analyzed in regard to their epidemiological, clinical, clinicopathological, immunological and microbiological features. Regional variations in incidence, age and sex distribution, bathing history, and histopathology were seen...

In South Asia, Sri Lanka is considered to be a country with a low prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). However, most of the behaviours that facilitate the spread of HIV exist within the country. A large sexually active and potentially susceptible population aged between 15 and 49 years accounts for almost 55 per cent of the total Sri Lankan population of 18.7 million. The continuin...

The proximate composition, pepsin digestibility, gross energy and macro mineral contents of 12 composite samples of poultry offal meal produced in Sri Lanka were analyzed. The average dry matter, ash, crude protein, crude fiber, ether extract, in vitro pepsin digestibility and gross energy of poultry offal meal were 92.3, 6.9, 48.9, 2.1, 32.4, 83.8% and 23.6 MJ kg, respectively. The average Ca,...

Energy supply in Sri Lanka is mainly based on three primary sources, namely hydroelectricity, biomass and petroleum. The supply from each of these sources is such that 11percent is attributable to hydroelectricity, 55 percent to biomass and 34 percent to petroleum oil products. Fuel-wood and other biomass such as coconut residues, paddy husks and sawdust are largely used for domestic cooking ac...

Out of the total population of Sri Lanka, the Muslim community constitutes about 8%, while the Buddhist majority makes up 69,1%. Still, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, a Muslim political party, has been a significant player in the Sri Lankan political arena since the early 1990s. This article explores how they managed to gain support as quickly as they did, from the early 1980s to the present, a...

Floods, the most common and hazardous natural event in Sri Lanka, are mainly caused by excessive rainfall received during monsoons resulting from development of low-pressure systems in the Bay of Bengal. From 2004 to 2014, Sri Lanka faced 23 flood occurrences with over 500 lives being lost and 9 million people affected. These floods caused an economic loss of USD 1 billion, reveals data availab...

ALASDAIR J. EDWARDS *, SUSAN CLARK , HUSSEIN ZAHIRà, ARJAN RAJASURIYA§, ABDULLA NASEERà and JASON RUBENS Department of Marine Sciences and Coastal Management, University of Newcastle, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK àMarine Research Centre, Ministry of Fisheries, Agriculture and Marine Resources, Male', Maldives §Coral Reef Research Programme, National Aquatic Resources Research & Development A...

Two species of Neocypholaelaps Vitzthum are reported from Sri Lanka. One of them, Neocypholaelaps ceylonicus Narita & Moraes, n. sp., is described based on adult females. The other, Neocypholaelaps ampullula (Berlese), originally described from Indonesia, is reported for the first time in Sri Lanka. Complementary morphological information about this species is provided based on the specimens co...