The District Public Health Office (DPHO) in Kapilvastu has claimed that the outbreak of measles has come under control in villages at the Somdiha VDC. 

A team of health workers had started to treat the affected children on a daily basis for the past six days, said the office, adding that the health workers had distributed medicines to the affected kids even visiting each household.   

A 13-member inspection team, including Senior Public Health Officer Basanta Adhikari and the DPHO Officer Bishnu Jaisawal, said that “the disease has come under control”. 

According to the parents of affected children, four of six kids who succumbed to a disease that resembles measles at Somdiha-7 and 8 in the district in the past two weeks. “We have identified 25 kids who have shown symptoms of measles in the villages,” said Adhikari, adding that other kids have shown the symptoms of pneumonia, diarrhoea and malnutrition.

A team of 10 health workers led by Dr Gopal Kadel and Dr Prasanta Ghimire of Taulihawa Hospital treated children in the affected 

areas. The DPHO has provided treatment to 64 kids in the affected areas.  

Fifty more children have been suffering from measles-like disease at Somdiha VDC. The kids have also showed symptoms like fever, diarrhoea and skin infections.

The DPHO said it had collected blood samples of 12 affected children and sent them to the National Public Health Laboratory in Teku, Kathmandu, for screening. “We can identify the disease properly after receiving the lab reports,” said Adhikari.