Two Nuwakot patients contracted cholera in Kathmandu: DPHO

10,700 people in Sisdole area administered with anti-cholera vaccine
KATHMANDU, Aug 19: Two people who came down with cholera in Kumari VDC of Nuwakot district had recently traveled to the disease-hit Kuleshwar area of Kathmandu, District Public Health Office (DPHO), Nuwakot, said.

"They had recently traveled to the capital and there is strong chance that they got infected there," said Bishwa Ram Shrestha, chief of Nuwakot DPHO. Although Shrestha said that the DPHO was serious about preventing the spread of disease in the district, the local health office might find it hard to do so as most of the health facilities and other infrastructures like sources of safe drinking water were badly damaged by the devastating earthquake of April 25.

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"We have sent a team of health workers in the village and its surrounding areas to prevent possible outbreak," said Shrestha.

Five dozens people have tested positive for cholera and hundreds others have got infected with diarrheal disease in the capital. Doctors said that Serotypes Ogawa and Inaba, which are associated with cholera, have been detected in patients. More and more people are getting infected with the disease in various parts of Kathmandu and Lalitpur districts as authorities have failed to take proper steps to stem the spread even two weeks after the outbreak was first reported. Health experts have warned of catastrophic consequences if the infections are not controlled immediately in a district whose water and sanitation systems suffered severe damages in the earthquake.

Meanwhile, the Nuwakot DPHO informed that 1,700 people of Sisdole area have been immunized with anti-cholera vaccine. "Sisdole area is highly vulnerable to cholera epidemic. So we have administered anti-cholera vaccine on 10,700 people residing in the area," informed Shrestha. He said that the DPHO has administered first dose of vaccine and the second dose will be given later. The vaccine will make the people immune to cholera for five years.