Kathmandu, August 24
All schools under Birgunj Metropolitan City have been closed for two days after cholera spread at the community level.
The Education Administration Division of the metropolis announced that both community and institutional schools will remain closed on Sunday and Monday as a precautionary measure.
According to Jaymod Thakur, an official at the District Public Health Office, 42 people admitted to different hospitals in Birgunj had tested positive for cholera as of late Saturday night. A total of 129 patients are currently undergoing treatment.
The outbreak has been confirmed in wards 11, 12, 13 and 16 of Birgunj Metropolitan City. On Friday night, cholera cases were first detected among locals in Murli Tole of ward 12, prompting authorities to mobilise health teams. By Saturday, the disease had spread to four wards.
Thakur said this is the first cholera outbreak recorded in Parsa district in the past decade. Cholera, caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae, spreads through contaminated food and water. Symptoms include acute diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain, sunken eyes, dehydration, muscle cramps, and fever. Without timely treatment, it can be fatal.
Thakur told Onlinekhabar that two people with diarrhea symptoms had died, a woman from Pokhariya-9 and a man from Birgunj-12. “Their families reported diarrhea-like symptoms, but we cannot confirm that cholera was the cause of their deaths,” he said.
He explained that the first suspected cases appeared on August 12 in Murli area, and numbers steadily rose. Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDT) confirmed cholera in several patients, with the total reaching 42 cases by late Saturday night. “This has taken the form of an epidemic,” Thakur said.
Water samples from 11 sites in Birgunj where cholera cases have been detected have been sent to the National Public Health Laboratory in Teku, Kathmandu for further testing.
