The District Public Health Office (DPHO), Nuwakot said that the blockade poses serious threat to lives of children, elderly and ailing people as all the demolished health facilities are in the same conditions as they were after the devastating earthquake.
Almost all the health facilities including the district hospital of Nuwakot were destroyed in the earthquake. In total, over 1,100 health facilities, including five district hospitals of the 14 highly affected districts, were destroyed by the magnitude 7.9 earthquake.
"Due to the ongoing blockade, we have not been able to complete a single health facility," said Bishwaram Shrestha, Chief at the DPHO, Nuwakot. Several aid agencies including GIZ, a German aid agency, Korea International Aid Agency (KOICA), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) have committed to rebuild destroyed health facilities including district hospitals and had initiated works in some areas before India imposed the unofficial blockade.
"Due to the scarcity of raw materials and fuel in the district, reconstruction works have been halted since the start of the blockade," Shrestha said. He said that the blockade poses serious threat to lives of children and ailing people and has become an obstacle to the government's aim of reducing neonatal death and death related to pneumonia and hypothermia.
"We have been providing services from makeshift tents. Even health facilities are not safe for cold related ailments," added Shrestha. Pneumonia is one of top killers of the children under five years of age globally and the infection raises several folds in the cold season.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 17 per cent of the children's death in Nepal is caused due to pneumonia. The data provided by the Child Health Division (CHD) under the Department of Health Services (DoHS) shows that each year over 5,600 children under five die of pneumonia. Death related to hypothermia is too high in the country even at normal time.
Dr Shyamraj Upreti, a health expert, said the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of child health is elusive in the present context as all the health facilities in the quake-hit districts have been operating in makeshift tents and victims too have been compelled to take refuge under the tent. The country has committed to bring the existing neonatal death to 16 by 2016 to meet the MDG target.
Meanwhile, the UNICEF has warned that three million children under the age of five in Nepal are at risk of death or disease during the harsh winter due to the severe shortage of fuel, food, medicines and vaccines.
Related story
Blockade puts lives of quake victims in jeopardy
