“I cannot sleep inside the tent due to extreme cold,” said Padam Bahadur BK, an elderly of Pipaldanda, who was outside soak in the sun on Monday afternoon. Soon he started coughing.
A week ago, Padam Bahadur was admitted to the district hospital. Doctors told him that the cough he was suffering from was getting worse. They also gave him medicine.
“Six days have elapsed since I started taking medicine but there has been no effect,” he said. “I sometimes feels that I cannot breathe anymore.”
Padam Bahadur caught cold with the onset of winter. Like him, many earthquake victims, who have been living inside temporary camps for the last eight months, have fallen sick due to extreme cold.
The district hospital and other health facilities are crowded with quake victims complaining of cold-related ailments. According to the doctors, asthma, cough and pneumonia are common among patients.
According to medical superintendent Doctor Sagar Kumar Rajbhandari, children, elderly and those suffering from chronic diseases are among the patients admitted to the district hospital. “They became sick due to the shelter, which is inadquate for winter,” he said.
It is natural for the number of patients visiting the hospital to rise during winter. But this year, the number has spiked, Rajbhandari told Republica.
A total of 150 patients are treated daily in the emergency and outpatient departments at the district hospital. More than 50 are suffering from asthma, cough and pneumonia, according to the doctors.
There are one hospital, three primary health centers and 75 health posts in the district. Patient numbers have significantly increased at all the health facilities this winter.
Records at the district health office show patient numbers have already risen twice compared to last winter.
Dr Rajbhandari said that the reason behind the increase of patients during this year's winter is the absence of adequate shelters post earthquake. He suggested to the quake-affected people to keep themselves warm during the winter.
Sindhupalchowk is the most affected district among the earthquake-hit districts. Over 90 per cent of houses belonging to nearly 70,000 families were completely destroyed. Nearly, 60,000 households in the district are still living at temporary camps.
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