Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, May 6:

As many as 202 persons died in 30 districts of the country from April 2004 to April 2005 due to diseases caused due to smoking, poor ventilation and lack of nutrition, a recently-published government report says.

According to a survey conducted by the Department of Health Services, 86 out of 4,907 pneumonia patients died in the districts of Kaski and Jumla.

Similarly, 26 deaths were reported out of 5,941 Acute Respiratory Infection (ARI) cases in the same districts. In addition, out of 1,342 cases of chronic obstructive lung disease, 82 deaths were reported.

While four out of 774 patients of chronic corpulmonale (chronic right side heart disease) died during the period, four people died of viral influenza. According to the report, altogether 501 people suffered from viral influenza during the period.

People in the districts of Kaski, Jumla, Tanahu, Gorkha, and Lalitpur, were found to be suffering mostly from pneumonia, ARI, viral influenza, chronic obstructive lung disease, and chronic corpulmonale respectively.

Dr Mahendra Bahadur Bista, director at the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division (EDCD), said that people suffering from viral influenza were kept in isolation to prevent more deaths due to the spread of the disease. He said that information had been disseminated among the people to ward off other diseases.

Mostly, people above 40 years of age are prone to chronic obstructive lung disease, chronic corpulmonale, bronchitis and asthma. Children under one year of age are prone to pneumonia, ARI and viral influenza, the report prepared by the department states.

Dr Hari Nath Acharya, spokesperson for the Health Ministry, said that surveillances were carried out and mobile health camps set up to check such diseases.

Awareness campaigns were launched against smoking and boozing, he said.