Browsing by Author "Herath, B."

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A Case of dapsone-Induced severe agranulocytosis causing life-threatening skin Sepsis in a Sri Lankan child with borderline Leprosy: A success story!
(Hindawi Pub. Corp, 2019) Fernando, M.; Kankananarachchi, I.; Navabalasooriyar, P.; Herath, B.; Punchihewa, P.
Leprosy is a common skin disease in Sri Lanka which is being increasingly diagnosed due to the existing successful public health programme. Dapsone is a drug which holds unique pharmacological properties where it serves as both anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial agents. Of its main adverse effects, agranulocytosis is a serious consequence which is reported mainly in adults and elderly. We report a 7-year-old child who sustained life-threatening skin and subcutaneous tissue sepsis because of dapsone-induced agranulocytosis. Besides, this case highlights the importance of meticulous monitoring of cell counts due to the risk of neutropenia and the natural history of cell recovery following occurrence of neutropenia. Though high mortality rate has been described in most of the similar cases reported, the child we describe made a complete recovery following severe neutropenic sepsis.
From reconciliation to National Development through PModel Tourist Zone in Eastern Province of Sri Lanka
(4th International Conference on Social Sciences 2018, Research Centre for Social Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2018) Liyanage, A.; Seneratne, P.; Herath, B.
After experiencing an ethnic based civil war for 30 years and unfulfilled promises by authorities after that, Eastern province of Sri Lanka is still far behind the national development efforts. While being forced back by inadequate infrastructure facilities, lack of service industry oriented vocational training and underemployment, the province consist of enormous amount of historic and natural tourist attractions. The main problem identified for this research evolved in this back ground of having no sustainable model to reap the benefits from tourist attractions in the war affected areas in eastern province. The primary objective was to address the aforesaid issue by developing a Model Tourist Zone; a self-sufficient supply chain model with resources supplied from and within the region and minimized negative aspects related to tourism industry in Ampara district mainly Pothuvil, Lahugala and surrounding areas, which can be implemented in the other parts of the country as well. The secondary objective was finding out circumstances of tourism industry in this area. A group of 25 Tamils who were former rebel groups’ members who have entered into small scale tourism and/or politics, 15 Sinhala and/or Muslim tourism related business owners, local government members and government officials were considered for a series of focus group discussions and key informant interviews to gather information for the research. The key findings are distrust among majority of participants regarding government related development & reconciliation initiatives, inadequate infrastructure facilities, lack of tourism oriented vocational training facilities and favouritism towards corporate giants and maltreatments for small scale entrepreneurs in tourism. In conclusion, it is necessary to regain the trust of the underemployed former rebel members by skilling them on tourism and channelling their unity and strengths combined with the natural tourist attractions in the area towards national development through making them stakeholders of Model Tourist Zone.