Diarrhea epidemic continues

[cezene]

RAUTAHAT, June 22 - Three schools here in a village in the district have been closed down indefinitely due to diarrhea epidemic.
Besides principal Radhika Sapkota and peon Kopila Devkota of Janahit Community Primary School in Gaidatar VDC, two dozen students are suffering from diarrhea. The school has 300 students.

The management of Janashakti Secondary School and Jivan Jyoti Boarding School too decided to close down after students there were affected by the disease. About 300 people here have diarrhea so far.

Three children in critical stage have been taken to Birgunj. While patients are being ferried to the Primary Health Center on a tractor due to lack of vehicles, Durga Bhandari, Chief District Officer has expressed inability to arrange medicine. "I cannot manage medicine. The VDC will look after that," he said.

Meanwhile, police and local people carried out an awareness campaign on Friday advising people to drink boiled water.

Earlier, 30 deaths were reported in Khin VDC of Kalikot due to diarrhea.

Talking to the Post, Dr Manas Kumar Bannerjee, director of Epidemiology and Disease Control Division in Kathmandu said that medical teams have already been sent to both Kalikot and Chandranigahapur. He confirmed 19 deaths due to the epidemic from March to June in Kalikot.

He said that the health team's awareness campaign and their adding of chlorine to water sources have prevented new cases of the disease in Kalikot.

However, the team reached Chandranigahapur late due to Bharatpur banda on Thursday. The team includes a doctor, a health assistant and a representative from the District Administrative Office, he said.

He added that the epidemic could be caused by rota-virus, which is common among children. According to him, contamination of water in Chandranigahapur is due to the presence of a dead snake in the water source. He also said the death of two elderly people in Rautahat was not caused by diarrhea. Instead, it was due to old age.

Meanwhile, our correspondent from Sunsari reported that the number of diarrhea patients is increasing in Inaruwa hospital.