Bajura, September 19

Acute shortage of essential drugs has been reported in Bajura due to the prolonged Tarai shutdown.

Both the government and private health facilities have run out of drugs due to the lack of supply for more than a month in the district. “Some health facilities in the remote locations of the district don’t even have citamol and jeevanjal,” said sources.

Bajura Health Office Chief Doctor Mohan Nath said almost all health facilities of the district were running out of medicines due to the prolonged closure of Tarai districts.

“It has been more than two weeks that our health post ran out of drugs. We don’t even have jeevanjal,” said Dogadi Health Post in-charge Dil Bahadur Rawat. According to him, more than 30 patients visit the health post every day and all of them are sent back empty handed.

Laxmi Kumar Shrestha, regional health director of Dipayal, said they had imported some essential drugs via aircraft from Kathmandu. Trucks loaded with other medicines have been halted at Pathlaiya of Bara due to the shutdown, he said.

Parashuram Shrestha, chief at Far-western Regional Health Office said, “If the closure continues for a few more days, the entire region will suffer from acute shortage of drugs.” Medicines are transported to the region mainly from Kathmandu and Pathlaiya. Khaptad Pharmacy at Bajura informed about the protracted drug crunch. “We need to import each and every drug from outside Bajura as there are no drug manufacturing companies in the region. Hence, we have been hit hard,” said Manoj Chaudhary of Martadi.

Local traders informed that they had also started facing shortage of daily essentials.

Udaypur also facing crunch

GAIGHAT: Udaypur has been reeling under shortage of drugs due to the prolonged closure in the Tarai districts. “No medicine has been imported for the past one month while we have run out of stock,” said Jitendra Sah, operator of Gaighat-based Shiva-shakti Medical Hall. Saline water used by patients of diabetes, blood pressure and heart disease is also unavailable in the district, he said. As most of the pharmaceuticals and wholesalers are located in the plains, Udayapur has been hit hard due to the prolonged closure, said pharmacy operator Bijaya Mahato. District Health Office Udaypur and other health facilities across the district have also started facing shortage of drugs. Doctor Chuman Lal Das, chief of the office, said his office was not being able to supply drugs to the district’s hilly areas due to the shortage.