Journal of Tropical Diseases & Public Health

Department of Town and Country Planning, University of Moratuwa, Katubedda, Sri Lanka

Biography

Prof. P.K.S. Mahanama currently works at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Moratuwa. Prof. Mahanama. does research in Ecology, Environmental Science and Urban/Rural Sociology. Their most recent publication is Assess the level of vulnerability to climate-induced disasters in Sri Lankan coastal areas: An application of open source geographic information system.

Publications

• Review Article   
  Public Health Planning and Citizen Engagement: Exploring the Need and the Sustainability of an Open Source Platform for Dengue Prevention in Sri Lanka
  Author(s): N Wickramaarachchi*, PKS Mahanama, R Ratnayake and NS Bandara
  
  The rise of Information Communication Technology (ICT) has offered the world a new and efficient mechanism to increase active citizen engagement. Growth in open source technology has widened the space for engaging a vast number of citizens limitless of geographical and hierarchical boundaries via crowdsourcing real-time data. Even though there is a boom in using ICTs in connecting and sharing knowledge and information among different stakeholders, still, there is a considerable gap in using open source technology in combating public health issues around the world. As a country with a high internet usage rate, Sri Lanka still shows underutilization of such technologies in monitoring and preventing non-communicable diseases. Dengue is a serious health threat in Sri Lanka which shows the need for active surveillance in prevention. The main objective of the paper is to seek the potential .. View more»
  

  Abstract PDF