COLOMBO, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Two Cuban epidemiologists who were invited to help Sri Lanka to handle the fast spreading Dengue epidemic in the island did not arrive in Colombo as expected, a local English newspaper said on Monday.

    The Daily Mirror reported that Cuba's chief epidemiologist Aramis Martinez and assistant epidemiologist S. Yalina were expected to arrive here on 8:30 a.m. on Saturday.

    "I went to the airport with health services Deputy Director General Palitha Mahipala to receive the two Cuban epidemiologists who were to arrive on an Emirates flight via Dubai. They were not among the planeload of passengers who checked in at the immigration desk," the paper quoted Sri Lankan Health Ministry spokesman W. M. D. Wanninayake as saying.

    Wanninayake said when the Cuban Embassy checked with the health authorities in Havana of Cuba, they were told that the two epidemiologists left their office on Thursday and they were due to travel to Sri Lanka via Dubai.

    "However, when the embassy checked the Emirates passenger manifesto it was found that the two Cubans had not arrived in Dubai," Wanninayake said.

    The two Cubans were being sent here after Sri Lankan health officials sought the assistance of Cuban to control the fast spreading dengue epidemic with the use of Bacillus Thuringensis Israelensis (BTI).

    The BTI bacteria is being widely used in Cuba to control the breeding of disease-bearing mosquitoes, the paper said.

    The Dengue fever is fast spreading in Sri Lankan since the beginning of this year with 180 people killed by the disease and more than 18,000 cases reported so far.

    This represents a sharp increase as 4,156 dengue cases and 85 deaths were reported for the whole year of 2008.

    The World Health Organization said some 2.5 billion people, two fifths of the world's population, are now at risk from dengue and estimated that there may be 50 million cases of dengue infection worldwide every year.