Is anything worse than usual in Batticaloa right now?

Yes. Dengue is well above usual: 3.0× its usual for these weeks.

Well above usual · 3.0×

42 dengue cases a week, against a usual 14.

050100150usual range2026JanAprJulOct

Read from these four weekly reports by Epidemiology Unit, Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka:

  • 20–26 Jul 2026 (Vol 53 No 31)
  • 26 Jul–2 Aug 2026 (Vol 53 No 32)
  • 3–9 Aug 2026 (Vol 53 No 33)
  • 10–16 Aug 2026 (Vol 53 No 34)
The 8 reports behind "usual"
  • 20–26 Jul 2024 (Vol 51 No 31)
  • 27 Jul–2 Aug 2024 (Vol 51 No 32)
  • 3–9 Aug 2024 (Vol 51 No 33)
  • 10–16 Aug 2024 (Vol 51 No 34)
  • 19–25 Jul 2025 (Vol 52 No 31)
  • 26 Jul–1 Aug 2025 (Vol 52 No 32)
  • 2–8 Aug 2025 (Vol 52 No 33)
  • 9–15 Aug 2025 (Vol 52 No 34)

The publisher's own list of its weekly reports

⅛×usual8×

How this is worked out. The last four weeks against the same four weeks of the two years before, for this district alone. Illnesses with fewer than 5 cases a week here are left out: too few to compare.

Dengue in Batticaloa, newest week

13 cases in the week to 13 September, about the same as a year ago.

21cases the week before
1,557so far this year, against 1,623 by now last year

Source: National Dengue Control Unit, Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka, Weekly Dengue Update, week 37 of 2026. It counts suspected cases and comes out weeks sooner than the weekly report used elsewhere on this page, so its figures are newer and usually a little higher.

What makes the most people ill here?

Dengue: 65 of every 100 reports here this year.

  • Dengue65 in 100
  • Chickenpox11 in 100
  • Leptospirosis6 in 100
  • Tuberculosis5 in 100
  • Leprosy4 in 100
  • 8 others9 in 100

2,236 reports from Batticaloa so far in 2026.

Which illnesses are coming into season here?

Nothing is due to peak here in the next three months. January is the next busy season, for dengue.

Usual peak, from 2007 to 2025Next ten weeks

How does Batticaloa compare with the rest of Sri Lanka?

Batticaloa is 17th of the 21 districts with enough dengue to compare, each against its own usual.

usual⅛×8×32×country 4.7×Anuradhapura: 6.0×Badulla: 7.6×Batticaloa: 3.0×Colombo: 4.0×Galle: 5.3×Gampaha: 6.3×Hambantota: 6.7×Jaffna: 2.5×Kalmunai: 6.5×Kalutara: 7.8×Kandy: 3.5×Kegalle: 5.3×Kurunegala: 3.8×Matale: 2.8×Matara: 7.2×Monaragala: 3.8×Nuwara Eliya: 6.3×Polonnaruwa: 5.0×Puttalam: 7.0×Ratnapura: 2.6×Trincomalee: 2.1×Batticaloa

Across Sri Lanka as a whole, dengue is at 4.7× its usual; here it is 3.0×.

Why each district against itself. A large district always has more cases than a small one. Each dot is a district against its own usual, so size drops out.

Where can people get care in Batticaloa?

40 government hospitals and clinics, from 17 primary care units to 1 national and teaching hospitals.

  • 17Primary care unitsthe first stop for most illnesses
  • 18Divisional hospitalssmall local hospitals
  • 4District and base hospitalslarger hospitals with specialists
  • 1National and teaching hospitalsthe largest, for serious and specialist care

Where volunteers on OpenStreetMap have mapped hospitals and clinics. Their map shows where they have been, not everything that exists.

HospitalClinic or doctor

Hospitals named on the map include:

  • Batticaloa Teaching Hospital
  • Base Hospital
  • Base Hospital Kaluwanchikudy
  • Eravur Base Hospital
  • Valaichchenai Base Hospital
  • District Hospital- Vakarai

Source: Directorate of Planning, Ministry of Health and Mass Media, Sri Lanka, List of Hospitals and Hospital Bed Data, 2026; map: OpenStreetMap contributors, via the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, licence ODbL 1.0.

How far is care from here?

1 in 5 people live more than an hour's walk from a hospital or clinic.

Walking time to the nearest hospital or clinic, for everyone living in Batticaloa. Half of people are within 26 minutes.

  • Within an hour's walk77%
  • One to two hours17%
  • More than two hours6%

The map these times come from is missing some of the hospitals and clinics here, so the real walk is probably shorter than shown.

And to a larger hospital?

Not shown yet. The Ministry of Health's list of its hospitals counts 5 larger hospitals in Batticaloa, and Dooram has not yet placed 1 of them on the map. It could be nearer to people here than the nearest one placed, so a distance now could be too long.

Sources: walking times, Weiss and others, Nature Medicine 2020 (Malaria Atlas Project), a model at walking pace from facilities mapped in 2019; where people live, WorldPop 2020; larger hospitals, the Ministry of Health's list of its hospitals (2026).

Can we trust this week's numbers for Batticaloa?

Yes, for this week. Batticaloa sent figures in 52 of the last 52 weekly reports.

Weekly reports with figures from Batticaloa, most recent last

A reported case means someone reached a clinic and a form was filed, so these count reports, not everyone who was ill.

Sources. Epidemiology Unit, Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka, weekly report. District maps: Survey Department of Sri Lanka, published as a Common Operational Dataset by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.