Life & Health

The district hospital in East Nawalparasi has run low on dengue test kit stocks, adding woes to the dengue outbreak across the country. Scrub typhus test kits are also in short supply. 

The dengue diagnostic kits have been in short supply for 15 days.

As a result, the hospital is forced to return incoming dengue patients, said the hospital information officer, Chhabi Lal Subedi. Nine people admitted to the hospital in the past two months have been confirmed with the infection.

The hospital's Out Patient Services have been receiving 20 dengue patients daily, said the hospital officiating medical superintendent Dr Kamal Raj Neupane. "Many people with high fever have been admitted to the hospital."

"We are attending to patients except those infected with dengue as it lacks dengue diagnostic kits," he said, adding that patients suspected of having dengue have been referred to other hospitals. 

The government provides the kits free of cost. Private hospitals charge high for dengue tests, thus putting an extra financial burden on the patients. 

The hospital's repeated requests to the provincial government for the supply of necessary kits have not been addressed, with the latter lamenting a lack of kits at the province health logistic management division, said Subedi.

"We have accepted dengue patients based on the confirmed reports of dengue tests conducted elsewhere," said Dr Neupane. - RSS