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Travel
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Nepal:
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NEPAL:
Encephalitis deaths on the rise
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September
2005 IRIN News report
NEPALGANJ,
8 Sep 2005 (IRIN) - A rise in the number of deaths from Japanese Encephalitis
(JE) is causing concern among health workers in Nepal who say more needs
to be done to combat the preventable disease.
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| The
Japanese Encephalitis mostly affects impoverished families, with many children and elderly people
among the victims. In the past two months alone at least 200 people have
died of JE, according to the Nepalese health authorities. A spokesman for
the health ministry said last week the mosquito-borne disease had affected
more than 800 people in the same period. |
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Annual
outbreaks of the disease often occur near rice fields after rainwater is
left standing during the monsoon season, which is about to end. A World
Health organisation (WHO) report said that nearly 50,000 cases of JE were
recorded every year, mostly in Asia. India and Nepal are particularly badly
affected by the disease, which is preventable by vaccination.
According
to medical reports, the disease is particularly deadly because once infected,
it is very difficult to cure those infected. Blinding headaches, seizures,
nausea and high fever usually precede death. Those who manage to survive
suffer from a series of disabilities, including paralysis and mental retardation.
Most
victims are from impoverished communities with poor housing, leaving them
forced to sleep out in the open where they can become infected by mosquitoes
carrying the disease.
The
Nepal Red Cross Society and other NGOs are providing bed nets to help prevention,
but, according to health workers, the supply has not been enough.
Nepalganj,
a border city 500 km west of the capital, is one part of Nepal where the
disease is at its worst. In less than three weeks, nearly 60 patients have
died from JE. Already 45 patients have died at Nepalganj's government-run
Bheri hospital. At least 15 others have died of the disease in other medical
facilities in the city.
Health
workers say nearly 200 die every year from the disease in the area. "It's
really a tragedy for most of these people who often arrive late [at hospital]
as they are not aware of the disease until they become really sick," said
health worker Nandalal Shrestha from Bheri hospital.
"The
government has to introduce strong measures to protect the vulnerable from
this deadly disease but priority has not been given to it, unlike for malaria
and HIV/AIDS," said health worker Anju Rai in Nepalganj.
Awareness
of JE is minimal in Nepal compared to other mosquito-borne diseases like
malaria, say health workers. A survey by a local NGO, the Environmental
Health Project (EHP), found that only a tiny percentage of the vulnerable
population in the southern plains of west Nepal were aware of the disease
and of measures to prevent it.
The
only effective way to prevent the disease is vaccination. Although the
government does provide free vaccines in state-run hospitals, they are
few and far between in a country where a nine-year-old Maoist rebellion
has restricted government health care to a few large towns and cities.
Credit
and Copyright © IRIN 2005
Integrated
Regional Information Networks (IRIN), part of the UN Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
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