Sri Lanka deploys drones and troops as dengue pushes hospitals to breaking point

Sri Lanka has deployed military drones and troops from all three of its armed forces to hunt for mosquito breeding sites, as the worst outbreak of dengue fever in nearly a decade overwhelms hospitals across the island and lays bare the collapse of its public health system.

The mosquito-borne disease has killed 56 people and infected more than 77,000 since January, with more than a quarter of cases recorded in July alone. Infections have accelerated sharply, rising to 21,537 in June, more than double the May figure, towards a toll now approaching that of the 2017 epidemic, the countrys worst, which killed more than 400 people. Health officials say around three-quarters of cases are linked to the more virulent DENV-2 strain, which has produced a higher rate of severe, haemorrhagic complications.

Hospitals have been swamped across the island, with wards converted, beds added and staff hours extended. Yet doctors describe patients lying two to a bed, in corridors and on floors. The acting director general of the National Dengue Control Unit, Kapila Kannangara, said public health workers were "stretched to their limit", with both patient numbers and case severity running high. In Negombo, one of the worst-hit areas, the district general hospital treated nearly 1,800 dengue patients in under two months, up from around 1,050 in the whole of 2025.

Neelika Malavige, a dengue specialist at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, said hospitals were "absolutely full", with two patients to a bed and some left on the floor, likening the surge to the peaks of the Covid-19 pandemic. At the National Hospital of Sri Lanka, only 17 high-dependency units are available for patients with severe dengue haemorrhagic fever. With capacity exhausted, admission thresholds have been lowered and doctors are advising those with milder symptoms to recover at home. Some medical professionals have accused the government of declining to formally declare an epidemic in order to avoid triggering emergency measures.

The military moves in

At the heart of the governments response is the military. In late June, Sri Lankas Presidents office announced that a special unit of army, navy and air force personnel would be deployed to identify and destroy mosquito breeding sites as part of a national clean-up campaign. Air force drones have since been used to scan the rooftops of homes, schools and construction sites for the pools of stagnant water in which the Aedes mosquito breeds, and to monitor larger areas from above. In some hospitals, the air force has also been drafted in to help overstretched staff keep track of patients.

Police officers have been sent door to door for physical inspections. Nearly 11,000 breeding sites were cleared in July, the health ministry said, while more than 4,000 premises were fined for harbouring them, and the authorities have threatened legal action against householders who allow water to collect on their land.

The approach is not new. According to the health ministrys own 2025 report, inspections by police, the armed forces and the Civil Security Department covered more than 323,000 premises the previous year, identifying larvae at some 12,000 and leading to nearly 3,000 legal cases. Critics have long argued that this militarised and punitive model, which treats residents as culprits to be fined rather than citizens failed by a crumbling health system, does little to address the roots of the crisis.

A system in collapse

The surge has come in the aftermath of Cyclone Ditwah, the islands worst natural disaster, which struck in late November and caused an estimated 1.4 billion US dollars in damage, according to the World Bank, scattering debris that became fresh breeding grounds. But health workers and unions say the scale of the disaster owes as much to years of underfunding as to the weather.

Sri Lankas public health institutions face shortages of tens of thousands of staff, including some 23,000 nurses and 14,000 hospital attendants, according to health sector unions, while only around two-thirds of the required public health inspectors, the front line of dengue prevention, are in post. Nearly a tenth of the countrys doctors are reported to have emigrated over the past two years. In June, the Government Medical Officers Association said the central medical stores had run out of 180 essential medicines. The 2026 budget cut health spending to 554 billion rupees, down from 604 billion the year before, as the government pursues a primary surplus and heavy debt repayments under the terms of its International Monetary Fund bailout.

The official figures are widely believed to understate the true toll. Because a large majority of those infected show no symptoms while remaining able to spread the disease, one public health inspector in Mannar suggested the real number of infections could be closer to 200,000. Universities in Colombo and Moratuwa have been closed, and students have died after contracting the virus.

Health officials expect infections to ease as the south-west monsoon weakens in August, but warn they could climb again from November with the arrival of the islands second annual monsoon.