The Dharan Sub-metropolis has been struggling to contain dengue even two and a half months after the mosquito-borne disease broke out in the city.

The BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences has been receiving 15 to 25 new dengue patients every day, said Prof Dr Gayananda Mandal of the institute. “Nineteen dengue patients have been admitted to the hospital until 2pm on Wednesday alone,” said Mandal.

In June, the Sub-metropolis Office formed a nine-member ‘Rapid Response Team’ after the number of dengue patients increased in the sub-metropolis. The team had conducted a drive to destroy mosquito eggs, larvae and their habitats in various parts of the city.

More than 3,000 people have been infected with dengue in Dharan this season. According to the BPKIHS data, more than 1,400 out of 2,953 blood samples sent for laboratory tests have returned positive for dengue.

Health workers said that the number of dengue patients has increased following heavy rains over the last few days. Dr Bijaya Kumar Khanal, coordinator of the Rapid Response Team, admitted that the dengue has not come under control completely.

“We have to restart our ‘search and destroy campaign’ since the disease is still not under control,” said Khanal.

Negligence of the locals is also making authorities’ job—to control the disease—more difficult, said Khanal.

“There were no tyres on the roads a month ago. But now, tyres are left everywhere on the streets. Water accumulated in these tyres becomes a breeding ground for mosquitoes,” said Khanal.

Maheshwor Rai, a member of the Rapid Response Team, said that the disease has also spread in other eastern districts as the authorities concerned could not make any concrete plan to contain the disease. “The search and destroy campaign has come to a halt now before the disease has been contained,” said Rai.

Dengue patients were also found in Kerabari in Morang in the last few days. Tom Chaulagain, a health worker at the Kerabari Sub-health Post, said that more than 40 dengue patients were found in Kerabari alone.

Dengue is an infectious disease contracted from mosquitoes belonging to the Aedes Aegypti genus. Doctors said that its symptoms range from mild fever to incapacitating high fever, severe headache, muscle and joint pain, and skin rashes. 

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