Despite the decade-long armed conflict and political instability due to prolonged transition, Nepal has already achieved various Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets that India is still struggling to meet.World Bank health indicators show Nepal much ahead of India, which far outstrips Nepal in terms of per capita gross domestic product (GDP).
However, the ongoing India imposed economic blockade threatens to derail Nepal's progress in the health sector, warn health experts.
"Due to the ongoing fuel shortage, we have been unable to supply medicines to health facilities," said Dr Baburam Marasini, director at the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division (EDCD) of the Department of Health Services (DoHS), adding that scarcity of medicines will have serious and far-reaching consequences. He said that several health facilities across the country have been running out of essential medicines and that people are being deprived of the basic medications.
The Child Health Division (CHD) of the DoHS said that it has been struggling to carry out immunization programs at health facilities across the country because of the ongoing fuel crisis. "We have been facing huge challenges to continue our programs that are vital to maintain the targets we have set in the recent years," Dr Krishna Prasad Poudel, director at the Child Health Division (CHD) of the DoHS, said. He concedes that the regular immunization programs have been badly hit in several districts of the eastern Tarai region due to the protests.
Health workers, serving at the health facilities of the region have said that hundreds of children and pregnant women have been deprived of essential vaccines that protect them from deadly viruses.
Containing the spread of HIV is one of the several areas in which Nepal's health sector has become successful in recent years. However, the ongoing protests and economic blockade imposed by India has hit HIV patients as well.
Officials at the National Center for Aids and STD Control (NCASC) of the DoHS said that the center is struggling to continue the antiretroviral medicines administered to the people living with HIV.
"Even the decade-long armed conflict and the protracted political transition had not affected Nepal's progress in the health sector. But the ongoing economic blockade imposed by India poses serious threat to sustaining the achievements," Dr Shyam Raj Upreti, a health expert, says. Nepal was rewarded by the international community for its success in meeting the MDG goals in various programs, including the reduction in maternal mortality rate.
According to Dr Upreti, the achievements in the health as well as other sectors will be badly affected by the prolonged Indian blockade and, eventually, the overall development of the country.
The shortage of fuel and essential goods has resulted in multi-faceted crisis. People have cut down their diet intake, patients are deprived of basic medication, and health facilities have been running out of emergency drugs. Similarly, students are deprived of compulsory educational activities, industrial units have been shut down and development works have been obstructed. As per the experts, it may take years to get things back to the pre-blockade state.
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