Chitwan, July 30
As many as 37 cases of scrub typhus infection have been found in Chitwan district in past two weeks. Doctors, therefore, have cautioned members of the public to pay attention to any symptom of the disease including fever.
The District Public Health Office says, 37 people tested positive when 109 had undergone tests at various health facilities of the district.
DPHO Chief Bijaya Kumar Jha says this is an alarming number and highest ever in the district. From the period of mid-June to mid-July, only five such cases were found, he adds.
The disease is most prevalent in Chitwan among all districts of Nepal, which recorded the first such case around two years ago.
Symptoms of the disease include headache, fever, red lesions or sores or rashes around back, nape and neck. The disease is caused by an insect named mite.
Meanwhile, the district is reeling under a shortage of test kit to examine other cases. “We cannot update our data as we do not have sufficient kits,” DPHO Vector Control Inspector Ram KC says, “We have been demanding for the supply many times, but in vain.”
“We have told the hospitals to buy kits in their own,” Jha informs.
