A nationwide shortage of platinum-based chemotherapy drugs is forcing patients’ families to source medicines from the black market amid disrupted supply and government price controls.

French aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) on Saturday ​warned that the ​latest Ebola outbreak - ⁠the 17th since 1976 - was spreading at an unprecedented pace.

50-bed Geta Hospital to be upgraded to 300-bed facility.

Rising cases of diarrhoea, fever and dehydration strain emergency services as patients return disappointed after finding OPD services closed during public holidays.

Epidemiology and Disease Control Division urges provinces and local units to stock medicines for water-borne diseases, test water quality and prepare for monsoon-related infections.

Repeated backtracking on promised benefits has reduced health insurance renewal rates to around 50 percent.

Recommendation also extends to other one-year internship-based programmes.

Over 300 children have been infected in outbreaks in seven districts of Nepal since January.

Doctors warn that delay in preparedness could turn even a single infection into a major health crisis.

Bheri Hospital in Nepalgunj is treating around 100 heat-affected patients daily in recent days.

Decision comes amid an outbreak of Bundibugyo strain that has killed at least 144 people and infected over 600 in Congo and Uganda since late April.

Doctors attending cancer patients say there is no carboplatin, cisplatin and oxaliplatin chemotherapy medication used to treat various types of cancers. Hundreds of patients have been affected.

Doctors and studies point to excessive iodine in fortified salt as a possible factor behind rising hyperthyroidism cases in Nepal. Policy efforts to review iodine levels, however, remain stalled.

Over 970 Nepali peacekeepers are in the virus-hit Democratic Republic of Congo, including in Bunia and Fataki in Ituri Province, the epicentre of the outbreak.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority maintains records of almost all disasters, but has no data on wild mushroom poisoning, which is not legally classified as a disaster.

Officials complain of shortages of beds, manpower and funding are limiting care capacity.

Patients, medics and officials question the quality of drugs supplied under government health programmes citing weaknesses in procurement and testing.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has recommended a ​42-day quarantine for all passengers from the boat from Sunday.

The UN health body said that the hantavirus cluster is linked to the same vessel, which had passengers and crew from around 23 countries, including Indians.

As many as 66 districts report dengue cases before the start of monsoon. Experts term it concerning.