by Christopher Sharma

The poorest villages west of the country have been hit by a strange unidentified disease. Doctors so far have only been able to treat the symptoms of those infected. Dr. Pun: "We, doctors also fear contagion." The government is distributing medicines with helicopters. The affected areas are the most mountainous of the country.

Kathmandu (AsiaNews) - A mysterious virus has hit some villages in the Jajarkot district (western Nepal, one of the poorest in the whole country) leaving 15 people dead,  about 200 seriously ill and least 3 thousand people infected. News was first relayed by the development Committee of Archhani village, according to which the virus manifests itself with symptoms such as headache, fever and coughing.

Janak Bahadur Rokaya, a member of the Committee, reports: "In my village alone at least ten people were killed. We are very concerned. The disease is spreading very quickly and has already reached even the most remote areas of the district. Soon it will infect neighboring ones. " He reports that in his administrative region at least 150 people are in serious condition and more than 200 are suffering from the reported symptoms.

Khagaraj Adhikari, Minister of Health and Population, has travelled to the infected areas. He said: "As soon as the government was informed Sunday 12 April, I visited the district and deployed 12 doctors for the care of the sick." He adds, however, that "the biggest problem is that people are superstitious and believe in traditional magical medicine. So, when they get sick, instead of resorting to medical care they prefer to seek the treatment of witchdoctors. "

Dr. Deepak Pun told AsiaNews: "We have enough medicine and medical staff to treat cases. Since the disease has not yet been identified, we can only treat the symptoms". He has screened at least 900 people and many others are waiting for the medicine. The doctor added that "doctors also fear being infected by this strange disease."

Secretary of Health, Shanta Bahadur Shrestha, stated that the government is taking several doctors to the affected areas and is distributing medicines with helicopters. They also collected blood and urine samples for laboratory analysis. Rokaya however denounces: "If the government does not take adequate measures in a short time, hundreds of people could die."

Civil society his calling for swift action from the government to address the problem and save the lives of poor people living in the mountain districts of Nepal.

 

• nepal
• virus
• treament
• death
• disease
• doctors
• poor