Banke, October 31:

Teams of medical professionals today left for remote villages of Banke district affected by an undiagnosed disease, District Public Health Office (DPHO) Banke said.

An 11-member team led by Dr Kumar Sanshah left for the affected VDCs including Fattehpur, Gangapur and Narainapur, chief of Epidemic Disease Control Program of DPHO, Ram Bahadur Chand said. An eight-member team led by Dr Jeewan Pradhan left for Holiya VDC.

The teams have taken equipment necessary for blood tests and administering medicines adequate for around 500 patients.

The disease has not been diagnosed yet but medical professionals have taken medicines for malaria because PF positive was found in the blood samples of two patients from the village, the DPHO said.

“A medical team has started testing the blood samples of the patients but the results have not reached the DPHO yet due to lack of means of communication,” Chand said.

Local residents said the patients were being distributed medicines for malaria even though the disease wasn’t diagnosed. The DPHO is also making preparations to spray insecticides to prevent spread of the disease.

Chand added that DPHO Banke has asked for a specialists’ team from the Health Ministry for control of the disease. “We have asked for a specialists’ team; we are really concerned for the treatment of the patients,” Chand said.

Advisor of Health Ministry, Dr Mahesh Maskey and Senior Public Health Officer Giriraj Subedi reached Nepalgunj to coordinate for control of the epidemic.