The provincial government on Monday allocated a budget of Rs8 million to contain dengue epidemic in Dharan. The Province 1 executive also provided two medical ventilators to the Dharan-based BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences (BPKIHS) where the dengue patients are currently undergoing treatment.   

Talking to the Post, Chief Minister Sher Dhan Rai said that Rs5 million was provided to the BPKIHS for free treatment of dengue patients. “An additional Rs3 million has been issued to launch a campaign to control the outbreak,” said Rai, claiming that the provincial executive is committed to end the dengue epidemic in Dharan.  

The federal and provincial governments had been criticised for not taking concrete initiatives to control dengue even after the disease turned into an epidemic. Dharan Sub-metropolis declared Wards 8 and 15 as crisis-hit zones after the Health Directorate of Province 1 announced a dengue emergency in the city on Thursday.

The rapid response team has been running a search and destroy campaign in the area for the past one week. The team intensified its door-to-door drive and destroyed mosquito eggs, larvae and pupae in the area. “We are working tirelessly to contain the disease before monsoon begins. We will visit every house from Tuesday onwards to monitor the situation and to see if the locals are following the instructions to control the disease or not,” said Dr Bijaya Kumar Khanal, the coordinator of the rapid response team.

Constant rise in dengue cases

Dengue patients are on the rise in various wards of Dharan. As many as 368 people have been diagnosed with the mosquito-borne disease as of Monday afternoon.

According to Dr Bikash Sah, assistant director at the BPKIHS, 368 of 1,230 blood samples tested for dengue returned positive. Fifty-four new cases of dengue were confirmed through laboratory tests at the hospital on Monday.