An unidentified disease in Kanchanrup Municipality of Saptari leaves three dead and 400 affected within the last 15 days, according to the health officials.

Health workers said the patients suffer from a high fever, cough, joint pain and headache and muscle cramps. Senior Auxiliary Health Worker Dambar Prasad Gupta said Diwas Basnet of Kanchanrup-7, Kishor Ram of Kanchanrup-3 and Oamad Kumar Ram of Kanchanpur-9, all aged 14, died of the unidentified disease.

All three died while undergoing treatment at Biratnagar based hospitals. Gupta said that around 400 people have been affected by the disease in Kanchanrup area.

“Number of patients with a high fever increases everyday. Each health post receives around 20 to 30 patients on a daily basis,” said Gupta. There are 10 health posts in the municipality.

Separate teams from the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division (EDCD) and the BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences are studying the unidentified disease. Section chief of the EDCD Dr Prakash Sah said they have started treating 400 patients from health camps starting Sunday.  “We have collected samples from the affected area for lab tests,” said Sah, adding that they suspect the patients have Scrub typhus or Influenza. Officials said that the disease could only be identified after the samples have been tested in the National Public Health Laboratory.