A viral fever has broken out at a Musahar settlement in Lagraha, Siraha. The fever has affected all 37 households at the settlement, where the first few cases were reported two weeks ago.

Up to six members of a single family were found bedridden at the settlement in Lahan Municipality Ward No.15, according to health workers.

“The entire settlement has been affected by viral fever. We are providing medicines to patients. It will take at least seven to 10 days to take the situation under control,” said Ram Sundar Chaudhary, an auxiliary health worker at the Ward Health Post.

Raj Kumar Sadaya Musahar, a resident of Lagraha, said seven members of his family have taken ill due to fever for the last two weeks.

“I don’t have the money to take them to a hospital. When the fever broke out two weeks ago, I bought paracetamol tablets from a local pharmacy for my family, but the medicine didn’t work,” said Musahar, a daily wage worker. Most families in the settlement are daily wage labourers with no means to take the sick to a hospital, he said.

Most patients in the settlement are showing symptoms of diarrhoea, headache, body pain, stomach pain and fever, said Chaudhary.

Jitan Sadaya, a local man who has been suffering from fever, said that there is not a single family in the settlement that hasn’t fallen ill. He said,

“We took tablets from a pharmacy, and the fever subsided for a while, but it’s come back again,” said Jitan Sadaya, who’s also down with the fever.

Meanwhile, 60-year-old Nunwa Sadaya Musahar, a local woman, said, “We are bedridden. We don’t even have a rickshaw fare to go to the nearest hospital,” he said. The closest health facility, Lahan Hospital, is around nine-kilometres from the settlement.

With dengue fever making headlines across the country, families in the settlement were worried about the spread of dengue.

“I hope it’s not dengue we are suffering from. I can’t afford to seek treatment for dengue,” said Dev Sadaya, a local man.

To contain the viral fever, Lahan Municipality’s ward office has mobilised a team of health workers in the affected area.

“Health workers are providing door-to-door health services at the settlement. The viral fever will hopefully come under control soon,” said Tej Narayan Chaudhary, ward chairman of the municipality.