Diarrhoea Kills Two Flood Victims in Saptari Camp

Rajbiraj, September 6:

Two diarrhoea patients died in a temporary camp set up for flood victims in Saptari district last night. Dibyananda Kamat's six-year-old son Nitesh Kamat of Haripur-8, Sunsari district, died of cold diarrhoea. The boy died while he was being rushed to the Sagarmatha zonal hospital Rajbiraj for treatment, ...

The latest deaths point at a looming health crisis in the camps here. With limited human resources and the looming shortage of medicines accompanied by a steady increase in the number of flood victims at the camps, doctors have been finding it difficult to attend to the patients.

As of on Friday, five flood victims have died of different diseases in Saptari-based temporary camps. Those who died earlier are Anup Sada, 13, Laxman Yadav, 55, and Dukhi Devi Sada, 39, of Sripur. The number of patients is on the rise in the temporary camps, said head of the Sagarmatha zonal hospital Dr Murali Prasad Singh.

Around 25,000 flood victims from Sunsari and India have been taking shelter in temporary camps in Saptari's Bhardaha, Portaha, Hanumannagar and Rajbiraj. Apart from attending to patients in the camps, medical personnel of the hospital have been treating flood victims in the hospital as well.

Six of the 13 physicians of the hospital have been attending to the patients in the camp, whereas rest of the physicians have been working in the hospital round the clock, said head of the hospital Dr Singh.

"As of on Friday, we have treated at least 12,000 patients," Dr Singh said. "We will run out of stock of medicines in six or seven days." He appealed to all to help the hospital treat the victims.