BAJURA, May 7: Following the mobilization of enough health workers, a viral fever outbreak which created panic in three villages of Himali Rural Municipality of Bajura district over the last couple of weeks, is slowly coming under control.
While a person died of the diseases, scores of others were affected by it, especially the residents of Kyudi, Bachhya and Padi villages in the rural municipality. According to the District Public Health Office (DPHO), Bajura, the situation is becoming normal with each passing day. While those who were infected earlier are getting well, no new cases have come to light in the last couple of days, according to Ashok Singh, chief of the DPHO.
One dead, several affected by viral fever in Bajura
For the past four days, teams of health workers have been providing health treatment to the patients in the affected areas. As many as 140 people in Padi, 40 in Bachhya and 93 in Kyudi developed the fever in the last two weeks. Common cold, headache, and fever, among others, are the major symptoms that most patients have shown.
Earlier, in Tanjakot Rural Municipality of Humla, 10 people died of the viral fever. Especially the elderly people and children are prone to the illness, say health workers, adding that people can easily lose their lives to this illness if they are not provided treatment on time. Chanchakala Budha, 55, of Kyudi who suffered from the fever died last Wednesday due to the lack of treatment. Two more elderly people in Padi are critical. Both are octogenarians.
Govinda Malla, chairperson of Himali, claimed that health workers have been sent to the affected villages with enough medicines. As the DPHO falls under the provincial government, DPHO chief Singh informed Republica that everything is being done in coordination with the provincial government.
The DPHO had provided 8,000 tablets of paracetamol and 2,000 tablets of Fenaramin. Similarly, the local unit has used all the medicines it had. Health experts speculate that the fever could have spread to these villages in Bajura from neighboring Tanjakot of Humla. Auxiliary Health Worker Dhan Bahadur Fadera, who has been treating patients in Himali, says change in weather is also to blame for the outbreak of the disease.
If everything goes well, say the health workers, the fever will be brought completely under control within a week. This has offered a relief to the villagers who were terrorized by the disease. With this, the neighboring Swamikartik Khapar and Jagannath rural municipalities and Budhinanda Municipality have started taking precautions to prevent an outbreak.