By Our Correspondent
Rajbiraj, July 12: There are around 50 ambulances in Saptari district. However, none was available to transport around two dozen patients suffering from an unknown illness in Mahadeva and Tilathi Koiladi Rural municipalities of the district.
The families of poor and daily wage workers were affected the most and these were the ones who were unable to afford transport services to reach a health centre.
It was only when Jaynarayan Acharya, Chief District Officer of Saptari, reached the place with a health team and inquired about the situation, a process to transport the patients to hospitals began.
CDO Acharya gave his vehicle (a Scorpio with registration number Sa 1 Jha 514) to transport the patients to Gajendra Narayan Singh Hospital.
Free treatment for all the patients has also been arranged.
One died of the illness which started spreading in the two rural municipalities four days ago while over one-and-a-half-dozen individuals are still receiving treatment. Sita Devi Razaq, a 40-year-old from Ward 2 of Mahadeva, died on Thursday while undergoing treatment. She was admitted to hospital following problems like poor digestion, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and headache. Similar symptoms are seen in all other patients.
“The symptoms seem similar to that of food poisoning. They are receiving treatment and we are learning about their illness with some tests so that they can be provided with effective care,” said Duniyalal Yadav, chief at the Saptari Health Office.