The Nepalgunj-based Bheri Zonal Hospital has been facing shortage of various medicines owing to the protracted banda.

Hospital officials said the shortage has hit the sickle cell anaemia patients the hardest due to the short supply of a medicine named Hydroxy-urea.

Officials said they cannot purchase the drug as it is imported by a particular company. Hospital chief Dr Shyam Sundar Yadav said the medicine has been left in Birgunj Customs Office due to the banda. He said they have informed the authorities concerned of the matter.

Dhaniram Chaudhary of Magaragadhi in Bardiya said he has been worried due to the shortage. “My whole body aches without that medicine,” said Chaudhary, who is suffering from the disease.

Dr Rajan Pandey said they are prescribing pain killers to the patients to reduce their pain. However, a pain killer won’t work time and again, he said.

Doctors said patients suffering from sickle cell anaemia need the same medicine for treatment.

Sajha Incharge Sunit Kumar Yadav said they could not import the medicine due to banda. The importers are not willing to take risk as the medicine is expensive, Yadav said, adding that they would be relieved if the government helped them import the medicine.

Stating that around 10 patients suffering the disease come to the hospital daily, Dr Pandey said the government should initiate special efforts to help the patients.

The government has been providing free medical care to sickle cell anemia patients for the past two years. The disease, hereditary in character, has been seen mostly in the indigenous Tharu people living in Dang, Bardiya, Kanchanpur and Kailali.