COLOMBO, May 24 (Xinhua) -- A outbreak of chickenpox had forced Sri Lanka's Rajarata University to shut down academic activities of the agriculture faculty for some two weeks on Thursday, an official said.

Faculty Dean A.M.J.B. Adikari told Xinhua that 15 students fell sick with chickenpox a week ago and it started spreading afterwards.

He said the faculty was closed for two weeks to prevent the disease from spreading further.

There are 350 students attached to the agriculture faculty of Rajarata University located in the north central province of Sri Lanka.

"Students vacated their hostels on Thursday. We are planning to open the faculty for academic activities again on June 4. We decided to close the faculty upon recommendations by the medical officer of the university," he said.

The dean said the sudden changes of the weather pattern in the area had caused the outbreak of the disease.