Health institutes face shortage of scrub typhus testing kit
Even as the number of scrub typhus cases have been rising recently in different parts of the country, hospitals in the eastern districts have been reeling from shortage of necessary medical kits for testing the disease.
Even as the number of scrub typhus cases have been rising recently in different parts of the country, hospitals in the eastern districts have been reeling from shortage of necessary medical kits for testing the disease.
Scrub typhus is a type of mite-borne (rickettsial) infectious disease that is transmitted to human from the bite of an infected chigger and if untreated, it could lead to death.
According to doctors, the kits are not expensive and could be bought at nominal price but have become shortage in the market.
Dharan-based BP Koirala Institute of Health and Sciences has set up a separate desk in view of the growing infection of scrub typhus at the hospital’s paediatric department. The department has been kept on alert for the treatment of scrub typhus, the hospital said.
Doctors at the institute have advised people to avoid walking barefoot and keep their surroundings free from bushes.
Though qualified doctors have been kept stand by for the treatment of scrub typhus, there have been problems to diagnose the dieses due to lack of lab kits necessary to test the blood. Even the BP hospital has been compelled to send the blood sample to National Public Health Laboratory because of the shortage of kits, Director at BP Institute Dr Arbind Kumar Sinha said. “The only reason we couldn’t have kit at the hospital is its shortage in the market,” he added.
Paediatric Dr Dinesh Dharel has been assigned to look after the cases of scrub typhus. He said the disease is transmitted to humans from animals but doesn’t transmit from human to human.
At least two children have died of scrub typhus in the eastern region in the past 30 days and five, of the total 11 cases reported, are undergoing treatment for the disease at the BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences in Dharan.
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