Rajbiraj/Mahottari, July 24:

Viral fever has spread in Saptari district’s Kanchan VDC and rural areas of Mahottari in the past one week.

At least 150 persons have been suffering from the illness in Saptari. The patients complain of headache, cold and high fever. Some of the patients are also suffering from diarrhoea, a patient, Ram Narayan Pandit, said.

According to a local, Rup Narayan Thakur, the situation has worsened due to the absence of health workers at the sub-health post in the VDC, 22 km west of the district headquarters, Rajbiraj.

Assistant health worker Indra Lal Yadav sometimes visits the sub-health post for an hour and never cares for the patients, Thakur alleged. Rainfall has further complicated matters as roads by which patients are taken to hospitals are in bad shape, Thakur said.

“Health workers seldom visit the health post in our village and we are having problems taking the patients out of the village for treatment due to the poor condition of the roads,” he said. Saptari district public health administrator Rakesh Kumar Thakur said he has no information on the outbreak of the disease and the absence of health workers at the sub-health post.

In Mahottari, the number of viral fever patients visiting hospitals and health centres have gone up in the past one week. Most of the rural areas in the district are in the grip of the disease. Most of the patients visiting the district hospital in Jaleshwor have fever, a health worker Anita Sharma, said. Twenty-five-30 fever patients have also been visiting health centres at Gaushala, Bardibas, Ramgopalpur and Balana daily, the health centres said.

A sudden surge in the mercury level and polluted water may have caused the spread of the disease, the head of the district hospital, Dr Pawan Thakur, said. “The viral fever may develop into kala-zar and typhoid if patients don’t get timely medical treatment,” Thakur added.