Dhading, June 1:

At least seven persons, including a two-year-old, have died of fever and diarrhoea in the past five days in ward numbers 6, 8 and 9 of Mahadevsthan VDC in southern Dhading, Sun Bahadur Tamang, a social worker, said.

Tamang sad that the “diarrhoea epidemic has affected members of the Tamang community the most”.

The VDC lacks transportation, communication and health services. With the onset of the summer season, diarrhoea has been raging in the VDC.

Thanks to lack of medical services, diarrhoea and fever killed 26 people in the first week of March, Tamang quoted locals as saying.

Wild berries and nuts, which the poor people consume to ward off hunger, might have caused the illness, the villagers said. They demanded that a team of medical personnel visit their village with medicines.

Chief of the Dhading District Health Office Sagar Dahal said he has received information about the spread of diarrhoea in Mahadevsthan VDC. “A health team headed by chief of the Benighat Health Post Babu Ram Kaudal would soon be sent to the VDC along with medicines,” he said.