Chief of the District Public Health Office (DPHO), Sunsari Dr Daya Shankar Lal Karna confirmed it to be an epidemic Tuesday after most of the displaced persons suffering from flu showed symptoms of swine flu.[break] The DPHO examined more patients in Khikripatti Tuesday after tests at the National Public Health Laboratory in Teku, Kathmandu showed two samples to be positive.
Dr Karna, however, claimed that swine flu has not been found in people displaced from Bhokraha-7. The samples were sent to Kathmandu after flood victims in both places started to suffer from flu simultaneously but all three samples from Bhokraha tested negative.
Sixty-seven persons in Khikripatti and 56 in Bhokraha are currently suffering from flu. A total of 431 flood victims in Sunsari are currently ill. Most of the flu patients have recovered on their own.
Senior epidemiologist at the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division Dr Bishwa Raj Khanal also allayed fears saying that most of the patients have recovered on their own in around a week like seasonal flu. “We had sent a team from the regional office in Dhankuta and no one is in critical condition,” Dr Khanal said reminding that even the World Health Organization (WHO) has recently declared that the pandemic H1N1 Flu is officially over with it taking the form of seasonal flu.
The flood victims, meanwhile, misbehaved with the DPHO team led by Dr Karna for humiliating them by disclosing name of the swine flu patients.
Four suffering from Dengue in Kailali
Meanwhile, four cases of dengue fever have been confirmed in Kailali, reports our Mahendranagar correspondent Bikram Giri.
A four-member team from the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division in Kathmandu confirmed that the four are suffering from dengue. Senior medical officer of the division and team coordinator Dr Yadu Chandra Ghimire said Bir Bahadur Buda Magar of Choumala, and Anubhav Joshi, 12, Ankita Shahi, 11, and Himali Shahi of Dhangadhi-5 are suffering from dengue.
“We even went to homes of the four and found that mosquitoes had laid eggs in containers containing water around their houses,” Dr Ghimire said. The vector of dengue virus is Aedes which is found in clean water collections in artificial containers such as plastic cups, used tires, broken bottles, flower pots, and even drinking water tanks and not filthy water like other mosquitoes.
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