The number of persons suffering from diarrhea has been significantly rising in Dang, Surkhet, Jajarkot and Rukum district. Health officials claim the diarrhoeal outbreak has taken epidemic proportions in Nepalgunj. One more person died of cholera in Nepalgunj on Tuesday, taking the total toll there to seven. [break]
Senior public health officer of the Regional Health Directorate (RDD) Kedar Parajuli said the situation could get worse if adequate measures are not taken on time.
Last year, as many as 200 people died of diarrhea and it took the government almost two months to take the epidemic under control in Jajarkot, which was the hardest hit. This year, the death toll in the district has so far been five.
Though the RHD has deployed teams of health workers to the affected areas, the epidemic is yet to come under control. Additional teams have been dispatched to the remote areas.
The outbreak has spread in eight VDCs in Dang. District Health Office (DHO) confirmed that only four persons died of diarrhea in the district. DHO chief Keshav Pandit claimed the outbreak is in its initial stage.
Cholera bacteria detected
KATHMANDU: The Epidemiology and Disease Control Division has said cholera bacteria have been detected in stool samples taken from patients in Nepalgunj.
“The tests here at the central lab have confirmed it,” Director of the Division Dr Garib Das Thakur said. Dr Thakur, however, claimed that the flow of patients have gone down significantly since the outbreak a week ago. “We reacted well and the number of patients has gone down to around 20 from about 150 daily,” he said.
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