Presidential Address 2022

ISSN : 1800 - 4016 (PRINTED) 2550 - 2778 (ONLINE) “Wijerama House”, No. 6, Wijerama Mawatha, Colombo 07, Telephone: +94 112 693 324, Email: office@slma.lk

SLMA News Editorial Committee 2022

JOINT EDITORS

Professor Kumara Mendis Dr. Sumithra Tissera

EDITORIAL COMMITTEE

Dr. B.J.C. Perera Dr. Sarath Gamini De Silva Dr. Kalyani Guruge Professor A. Pathmeswaran Professor Shamila De Silva Professor Senani Williams Professor Hasini Banneheka Dr. Clifford Perera Dr. Chamila Mettananda

MAGAZINE DESIGN Shashika Gunathilakæ

PRINTING AND PUBLISHING

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OUR ADVERTISERS FOR JANUARY

• Kalbe International Pte. Ltd • Blue Ocean Group of Campanies • Anti-Malaria Campaign • Nestlé Health Science • Prime Group

Miscellany

National Recognition for Dr. Padma Gunaratne,

Immediate Past President, SLMA

CONTENTS

President's Message

A Message from the Co-Editors

Presidential Address 2022

Brief Description of Activities

Induction of the President 2022 2

2

3

6-7

8-9

Feature Articles

Omicron: Is it a game changer in the long war of Covid-19 pandemic?

10-12

Hypertension in the primary healthcare setting in Sri Lanka 13-16 Current trends in breast cancer surgery in Sri Lanka Battle against the killer diseases: Let food be thy medicine

21-23 24-28

SLMA Council 2022 18-19

Notices

Call for abstracts, guidelines and list of awards

Call for orations

Call for Research Awards - SLMA 2022

30-31

33-34 35-36 36

SLMA President

Prof. Samath D. Dharmaratne

MBBS (Colombo) MSc (Community Medicine) MD (Community Medicine) President Sri Lanka Medical Association

SLMA NEWS+ is published by the Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA). The views expressed in it are not necessarily those of the SLMA. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the Editor. Permission may be sought directly from the SLMA, Wijerama House, No. 6, Wijerama Mawatha, Colombo 07, via telephone +94 112 693 324 or E-mail: office@slma.lk

President’s Message

Dear SLMA Members, I feel it a great honour and a privilege to be elected as the 128th President of the Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA), the oldest Medical Association in Asia.

I must put in record that it was not an easy task for me to become the President of this organization, I affirm that I will make it my duty to do my best to uplift the organization during my tenure and uphold the traditions and procedures of this great organization. The themes of the SLMA for 2022 are ‘Planetary Health and Global Health Security’ and the ‘Prevention and Control of Road Traffic Crashes, Injuries and Deaths’.

I and the Council of the Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA) will work to make its members and the people of Sri Lanka be able to live in a safe, secure, and disease-free country. We will prepare Sri Lanka to face future pandemics while helping policy makers manage the current COVID-19 pandemic. We will also make the roads safe for the people of this country. The Annual Academic Sessions are planned to be held from 28th September 2022 to October 1st 2022 at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel, Colombo. The Foundation Sessions will be held on 4th November 2022 at the Auditorium of the Sri Lanka Medical Association and the SLMA Medical Dance in December 2022 at the Cinnamon Grand hotel, Colombo. The Doctors Concert is scheduled for 23rd July 2022 at Hotel Galadari. The Law-Medical cricket match will be played in the latter part of 2022. I and the Council of the SLMA have planned regular ‘paduru parties’ and ‘karaoke’ sessions for the enjoyment of the members and invite you to join us to make 2022 a memorable year. We also urge you to invite your friends and colleagues to join the SLMA and share their expertise and skills to uplift the medical profession in Sri Lanka. I and the Council of the SLMA wish you and your families a new year filled with happiness, joy, and good health.

Professor Samath Dhamminda Dharmaratne President - SLMA

A Message from the Co-Editors

We request all SLMA Members to contribute to the SLMA News for the year 2022. The magazine is shared with the 4500 + SLMA members, uploaded to the SLMA website & facebook pages and the 500 printed copies are distributed among Medical Faculties, Professional Associations/ Colleges, Ministry of Health, UN Organizations, etc. The Guidelines for articles are given below; • Title: Give a catchy title, not lengthy • Word count: about 2000

• Number of references: maximum 8 (preferably less) • Referencing style (preferably): Vancouver

• Images: It is the responsibility of the author to get permission from the original author (Please give the reference to the original owner) • Sending images: Please send as attachments. Pasting images on MSWord reduces the quality of image and affect the print quality outcome. • Author details: Prefix, Name, Designation, Current Working Station For further clarifications/ details, please e mail to; The Co-Editors – SLMA News+ - office@slma.lk

Thank you Professor Kumara Mendis & Dr. Sumithra Tissera

The SLMA President - 2022

Professor Samath Dhamminda Dharmaratne, obtained his primary, secondary and tertiary education at Royal College, Colombo 7 and his MBBS in 1990, and completed his internship at the Colombo South Teaching Hospital. He joined the Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Peradeniya, in 1994 as a Probationary Lecturer. He obtained an MSc and a MD in Community Medicine from the Postgraduate Institute of Medicine (PGIM), University of Colombo, in 1997 and 2002 respectively and was Board Certified as a Specialist in Community Medicine in 2002. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2002, Associate Professor in 2009 and Chair Professor of Community Medicine in 2019. He was appointed as the first Director of the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS), University of Peradeniya on 1st September 2021. He is also the present Coordinator of the Diploma in Exercise and Sport Sciences program offered by the Faculty of Medicine, University of Peradeniya. Prof. Dharmaratne has 110,480 Google scholar citations, an H-Index of 62 and an i10-index of 103 to date. He has supervised 51 postgraduate students (32 MScs, 14 MDs, 3 MPhils and 2 PhDs) and many undergraduates at the faculties of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences at the University of Peradeniya. He has coauthored 115 peer reviewed journal articles and 200 presentations (90 oral and 110 poster) at national and international conferences. He had delivered two orations (Bibile Memorial and the Kandy Health Research Prize Oration) at the Kandy Society of Medicine. He has been a past President, Joint Secretary, Social Secretary and a Council member of the Kandy Society of Medicine. He also has been a Council member of the SLMA and has been in the council continuously for the past 12 years. He has been the Chairperson of the Expert Committee for Prevention of Road Traffic Crashes of the Sri Lanka Medical Association since 2013.

Presidential Address

Past presidents of the Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA), Board of Trusties, Council Members, Members of the SLMA, invitees, Members of the media, Ladies and Gentlemen. Thank you, the Immediate Past President Dr (Mrs) Padma Gunaratne, for your kind words of introduction. Let me take this opportunity to thank you for taking the SLMA to great heights and for making it a household name. I have a Herculean task to maintain your high standards and the recognition of the SLMA this year. Getting elected was not easy. Although I applied for the post in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, I was not elected. I did not apply in 2019 and was not elected for 2021 and was only elected to be the President of the Sri Lanka Medical Association in 2022. Thank you, Past Presidents for having faith in me to lead this prestigious organization in 2022. I feel it is a great honour and a privilege to be elected as the President of the SLMA. The oldest Medical Association in the Asia Pacific. The theme for the SLMA in 2022 will be ‘Planetary health and global health security’, why I chose this topic will be explained later. I took over the Presidency of the SLMA at the AGM held on December 22, 2021. Today, January 16, 2022, I was inducted as the 128th President of the SLMA. The Annual Academic Sessions are planned to be held from 28th September to 1st October 2022 at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel, Colombo. The Foundation Sessions will be held on 4th November, 2022 at the SLMA and the SLMA Medical Dance in December 2022 at the Cinnamon Grand. The Doctors Concert is scheduled for 23rd July, 2022 at Galadari and the Law-Medical cricket match in the latter part of 2022. These are the regular events and a few more are planned to make the year an eventful one. The SLMA will participate at a live musical event at Siyatha TV and two or three ‘Paduru Parties’/ Karaoke sessions are planned to improve the singing abilities of the SLMA members. All are invited to start practicing for these events. The SLMA is not only an academic organization!!! Regional meetings, international meetings and collaborations with Rotary International, Lions Club, BASL and the Ministry of Sports will make the year lively. Hope that we can have the SLMA walk in 2022 and other events. Planetary health is a nascent concept focused on the interdependence of human health, animal health, and the health of the environment. Defined as “the health of human civilization and the state of the natural systems on which it depends,” planetary health calls for urgent attention to the extensive degradation of our planet for human advancement. The concept focuses on reversing this trend by better balancing human needs with the preservation of the Earth to sustain the health and well-being of future generations.