Is anything worse than usual in Jaffna right now?

Yes. Dengue is well above usual: 2.5× its usual for these weeks.

Well above usual · 2.5×

32 dengue cases a week, against a usual 13.

05001kusual 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 Jaffna, newest week

22 cases in the week to 13 September, 3.7 times the same week last year.

19cases the week before
1,001so far this year, against 840 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 and chickenpox: 66 of every 100 reports here this year.

  • Dengue51 in 100
  • Chickenpox15 in 100
  • Typhus13 in 100
  • Tuberculosis6 in 100
  • Food poisoning5 in 100
  • 8 others10 in 100

1,922 reports from Jaffna 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 2009 to 2025Next ten weeks

How does Jaffna compare with the rest of Sri Lanka?

Jaffna is 20th 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×Jaffna

Across Sri Lanka as a whole, dengue is at 4.7× its usual; here it is 2.5×.

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 Jaffna?

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

  • 17Primary care unitsthe first stop for most illnesses
  • 23Divisional 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:

  • Jaffna General (Teaching) Hospital
  • Jaffna Teaching Hospital
  • Sidha Medicine Teaching Hospital
  • Base Hospital - Kayts
  • Base Hospital Point pedro
  • Chavakachcheri Base Hospital

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?

5% of 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 Jaffna. Half of people are within 15 minutes.

  • Within an hour's walk95%
  • One to two hours4%
  • More than two hours1%

And to a larger hospital?

5 kmhalf of people live closer than this to a base, general or teaching hospital
7%live more than 10 km away, in a straight line; roads are longer

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), with locations from OpenStreetMap contributors.

Can we trust this week's numbers for Jaffna?

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

Weekly reports with figures from Jaffna, 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.