A few patients who had contracted the strain - marked by high fever and gastroenteritis - have died over the recent days, but the doctors say that they are yet to ascertain whether the strain led to the deaths.
“The strain is not necessarily responsible for the deaths. There could be other causes behind it. We may be in a position to say something for sure only after the full investigation into the matter,” says Daya Ram Lamsal, a doctor at Chitwan Medical College.
A few days ago, a child from an indigenous Chepang community admitted to the medical college after contracting the strain had died following bouts of high fever and diarrhea.[break]
A few more patients with a similar strain have died at the state-run Bharatpur Hospital. But the doctors there, too, are keeping mum about the cases-though they admit that the strain found this year is the deadliest so far.
This has raised the eyebrows of the local residents who are well aware of the habit of the medical practitioners to hush up the outbreak of epidemics.
Two years ago, more than a dozen patients in the district had died following an outbreak of dengue, but the doctors had tried to fudge the issue, by claiming that only five persons had succumbed to the fever.
Meanwhile, the patients with the unknown strain are arriving in the hospitals in a large numbers. Most of them could be found at the Bharatpur Hospital where they could be seen laying on the floor as there are no more beds available in the both the emergency and general wards.
Gori Thapa of Juged village, Indra Kumari Chepang from Shaktikhor Devitar, Kanchhi Lama from Ratnanagar are among such patients who have been undergoing treatment there for high fever for over a week now.
According to the Anita Khakurel, a nurse, of some 150 patients who visit the OPD every day, more than half of them are found suffering from a sudden high fever.
"Most of the patients are suffering from high fever and diarrhea, said Dr Bhoj Raj Adhikari. “They return home after undergoing treatment, only to return afterward with similar condition.”
Chitwan District Public Health Office has, meanwhile, started collecting the data of the infected patients in all the hospitals.
"We are collecting the records of the patients infected with high fever and gastroenteritis in various hospital of the district,” said Ram KC, a vector control inspector. “We hope to complete the task by Wednesday.”
He further informed that 52 cases of dengue have also been reported in the district over the past month.
“We will launch additional health awareness programs in the district once we complete the data collection.”
Related story
Don’t panic, stay alert
