Banke, November 4
Patients suffering from cerebral malaria patients across the Rapti river complained on Friday that treatment was still beyond their reach.
Meanwhile, 45-year-old Shantidevi Yadav of Holiya-1 died on Friday for want of medical treatment, a local, Sohanlal Yadav, said over phone. Several malaria patients are awaiting treatment, he said. With Yadav's death, the malaria toll in the last two weeks has climbed to 40.
Though physicians had referred 12 patients to the Bheri Zonal Hospital on Wednesday, saying the patients were at high risk, just one patient was brought to the hospital in a vehicle on Thursday. The District Public Health Office (DPHO) Banke does not even know where they are.
The DPHO said the patients could not be brought to the hospital as the affected areas were virtually inaccessible.
Chief of the DPHO Banke, Jaya Bahadur Karki, said the vehicle has been arranged for bringing the patients to the hospital. "Several people will be needed to bring the patients up to the Rapti river. "We cannot make such an arrangement," he said, adding: "No one is cooperating with us to ferry the patients."
Physicians said malaria patients will die if they are not treated at the earliest.
DPHO chief Karki said requests are being made for necessary cooperation to carry the patients, adding that a tractor will head for the Rapti river tomorrow to ferry the patients. He said a patient was rushed to the Bheri Zonal Hospital in a vehicle yesterday.
DPHO chief Karki, however, said: "A team of physicians from the Nepalgunj Medical College arrived in the malaria-affected areas on Friday. All the physicians are busy treating patients, he added.
The Himalayan Times