A Sri Lankan newspaper will once again print an edition infused with insect repellent as part of the island nation’s fight against dengue fever, the publisher has announced.
The daily Mawbima printed its April 7 edition with citronella-laced ink to mark National Dengue Week, and it sold out before 10 a.m., the Japan Times reported Friday. The latest edition will be put out later this month, according to the report.
The dual-purpose edition boosted single-day circulation by 30 percent, or 300,000 copies, among the Sinhalese-speaking community in the capital of Colombo, the Japanese paper said.
“We want to use the power of the newspaper, which is read by so many people, to reduce the number of dengue cases,” Mawbima Editor Thushara Gunaratna was quoted as saying. “Although [the repellent] is only effective for a few hours, it’s effective in the morning when people are reading papers.”