"The patients in the epidemic-hit areas have been saved after the doctors started offering medication and treatment," Adhikari said in an interview with Nagarik Show.
Stating that the government deployed health workers in the epidemic-hit area soon after the outbreak of the seasonal flu, he further claimed that the ongoing outbreak of seasonal flu will come under full control within a week.
The Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) has been disseminating health awareness messages through various 50 FM stations in the Midwestern and Farwestern development regions. Minister Adhikari even informed that the health team of the Nepal Army (NA), the World Health Organization (WHO), and National Academy of Health and Science (NAHS) are working in the affected areas.
He expressed concerns over the negative reports in the media about medics and health officials in the midwester region and said such reports will diminish the morale of the health workers there. "Media should blame me and the government, but they should not report in a way that could diminish the morale of the medics who are working round-the-clock in the epidemic-hit areas," said he.
Refuting media reports that said the district hospitals are without medics and doctors, he said there were four medics working at the district hospital in Jajarkot at the time of the outbreak.
He even informed that the government is planning to build 50-bed hospitals in nine places including Jajarkot, arrange for special package for health officials who go to far-flung villages and introduce a mandatory provision for doctors, studying under scholarships, to work in remote areas.
Diarrhea epidemic in west Dang seems coming under control