Nepalgunj, November 23

It’s been 10 years since the campaign against elephantiasis started in Banke. Residents in the district have been immunised nine times against the disease, but to avail.

Recent data showed no improvement in elephantiasis cases in the district.

A survey carried out in the district found 74 persons afflicted with elephantiasis. A base line survey was held in Nepalgunj sub-metropolis-4 and Kohalpur Municipality-5 and 6 recently, according to the District Public Health Office. The survey was conducted from Tuesday through Wednesday.

“Of the 661 samples tested in the three wards of the two local bodies, filariasis-causing parasites were detected in 74 samples,” said DPHO’s National Filariasis Disease Elimination Programme focal person Durga Gautam. “Some 316 samples were collected from Salyanibag in Nepalgunj sub-metropolis-4, of which 11 persons were found to be afflicted with filariasis parasite. The parasite was detected in 63 of the 345 samples collected in Rajhena area of Kohalpur,” Gautam said, adding that the persons from whom the samples were collected were between 13 and 70 years old.

Gautam lamented lack of any improvement in the scenario in the district despite concerted effort to eradicate the disease.

Anti-filariasis campaign was first introduced in the district in 2009.

DPHO estimated that 12 per cent of the populace in the district was still afflicted with the disease.