“The basic treatment of normal diarrhea and cholera is similar but now that it has been found to be cholera, we will administer antibiotics,” Director of the Department of Health Services Dr Laxmi Raj Pathak, who has been deputed to coordinate the treatment of the diseases in the Mid-Western Region, said.
The ministry has now focused on raising awareness about basic sanitation in the region and has sent additional aqua chlorine solution to the region. “Around 200,000 bottles of chlorine solution have already landed and we will send more,” said acting health secretary Dr Dirgha Singh Bam. Dr Bam said the impoverished people have been hard hit due to their weakened immunity owing to inadequate intake of food.
Dr Pathak revealed that the situation is gradually coming under control and that there has been no additional casualty on Tuesday and Wednesday.
He said that additional health teams sent to three camps each in Jajarkot and Rukum have been called back to the respective district headquarters after a decrease in flow of patients to support his claim of controlling the disease. "We have decided to recruit local paramedics on contract basis to fill the vacancies in health institutions and also to release additional health workers flown in from outside the region," Dr Pathak said.
He further said that the ministry is trying to mobilize students to raise awareness. "Four students met us today and said they will be sending a 40-men team of medical, public health and environment students who will reach every house and among other things teach the locals to make bleaching powder locally at home,” Dr Pathak said.
He also blasted politicians for not improving drinking water facility in the villages despite every village development committee getting Rs 200,000 every year. “If the politicians had spent that money on drinking water instead of sloganeering for their self interest, this outbreak could have easily been averted,” Dr Pathak said.
Likewise, the government is also in talks with the World Health Organization (WHO) to formulate an action plan. “We will start weekly surveillance and monitor how many patients suffer from diarrhea throughout the year,” said senior public health official at the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division Dr Pranaya Kumar Upadhyaya.
House committee briefed
Meanwhile, Health Minister Umakanta Chaudhary on Wednesday briefed the Women, Children and Social Welfare Committee of the parliament on the status of the outbreak.
“It has spread due to lack of awareness. We couldn´t reach to the patients with medicines while they could not reach us,” minister Chaudhary said. He also requested political parties to mobilize their cadres as volunteers to control the situation and said the ministry would support any party that wants to set up health camps.
He also said he has asked education and local development secretaries to respectively mobilize students and teachers, and VDC secretaries as volunteers in the region.
Director General of the Department of Health Services Dr Govinda Ojha said medicines worth Rs 170 million have already reached the region and 5,969 patients have been treated in Jajarkot district alone.
He also put the official death toll at 128 in Jajarkot, 32 in Rukum, five in Rolpa, four in Surkhet, three each in Salyan and Dadeldhura and two in Rolpa.
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