BAJURA, JUNE 3

A hepatitis patient, who reached Bajura from India five days ago, has been kept in the quarantine facility of Chaitepipal Suryadoya School in Budhiganga Municipality.

The patient should have been kept in the isolation ward, but he is receiving treatment at the quarantine facility due to lack of isolation ward in Bajura District Hospital.

The municipality health coordinator Dipak Sha said the problem occurred due to lack of isolation facility in Bayalpata, Achham and Martadi.

He said that hepatitis was a communicable disease.

As many as 37 people who returned from India, including one pregnant woman and nine children, are staying along with the hepatitis patient in the quarantine. The hepatitis patient, a youth, said he was worried he might have spread the disease to other people staying in the quarantine since they shared the same toilet.

People in other quarantine facilities have also fallen ill and are receiving treatment in the quarantine facility itself due to lack of isolation ward.

Dr Rohit Giri of the district hospital said health workers were treating patients in the quarantine facility due to lack of isolation ward. He said there was only one isolation ward with 10 beds in Martadi, but all the beds had already been occupied by COVID patients.

“All the quarantined people are returnees from India. The problem arose after patients could not be shifted to the isolation ward,” Dr Giri added.

Dr Giri said there should be separate isolation ward for the infected and quarantine facilities for suspects. He also added that the infected and non-infected had been sharing the same toilet and this might put many lives at risk.

A patient kept in isolation ward also said that they were too compelled to share the same toilet as the hospital did not have separate toilets for infected and non-infected persons.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on June 4, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.