• 1,500 treated till date, more patients pouring in

Jajarkot, January 11 Health authorities are struggling to control the pandemic of viral fever in remote Junichande Rural Municipality in Jajarkot. The disease has caused 13 deaths over the past two weeks, while hundreds of others have fallen ill. According to district public health office, more than 1,500 patients have been treated so far and there are hundreds of others who are suffering from the disease in the rural municipality. The disease was first witnessed at Majkot in Ward No 2 from where it spread to other adjoining villages of Ward No 1 and 3. As per the latest report, the disease is said to have spread as far as Kortang in Ward No 4, Garkhakot in Ward No 5 and some parts of Ward No 10. Around 1,500 patients have been treated after we started treatment at a temporary health camp but the number of patients seems to be ever rising,” said Dr Pawan Shakya, who is in the medical team. “As most of the people here are uneducated, they prefer to go to shamans rather than come to us for treatment. In case they visit us seeking medical treatment, some of them, especially kids, don’t want to take medicine while others tend to be careless about taking medicine regularly, which has remained the main hindrance in controlling the disease,” said Dr Shakya. He also informed that 95 per cent of those who visited the health camp were suffering from mild cough, cold and fever. The doctor added that they had asked for more health workers and medicines from the district in view of the increasing number of patients in the rural municipality. Senior public health officer Ram Bahadur Nepali urged everyone to lend support to contain the outbreak of the disease.