Sri Lanka's dengue fever outbreak has reached epidemic proportions, infecting tens of thousands and exposing the collapse of its public health system. This crisis, a social crime, is the result of decades of austerity imposed by successive governments under the IMF's dictates, dismantling the universal right to free healthcare. The situation is dire, with hospitals overwhelmed, nurses and doctors overworked, and patients turned away. The official figures drastically underestimate the true scale of the disaster, as 75-80% of infected individuals are asymptomatic but still capable of transmitting the disease. This gap between official statistics and reality reflects a deliberate policy of concealment, similar to the COVID-19 pandemic, where governments reduced testing and manipulated death figures. The JVP/NPP government is downplaying the outbreak, failing to commit the necessary resources to eliminate mosquito breeding sites and provide adequate hospital care. Instead, they are responding on the same basis, treating workers and the poor as criminals rather than victims of a collapsing public health system. The epidemic is a social crime produced by the systematic destruction of Sri Lanka's public health system and the decades-long assault on the universal right to free healthcare. The Socialist Equality Party calls on workers to establish independent action committees to fight for the resources needed to rebuild public health, placing major banks, corporations, and private hospitals under democratic workers' control, rejecting foreign debt repayments, and establishing a workers' and peasants' government based on socialist policies.
