Ranjha, Feb 18 : Forty-four new cases of leprosy have been found in the six months of this fiscal year in Banke district. Leprosy resource person at Public Health Office Manab Nepali informed that they were found at eight local levels in the district.    
    
Most of them are from Nepalgunj and Kohalpur. Nepalgunj has 13 lepers while Kohalpur 11, Janaki Rural Municipality six, Baijanath and Narainapur Rural Municipalities five each, Khajura three, and Daduwa 1.    
    
Last year, 128 patients of leprosy were found in Banke. Interestingly, the government had declared leprosy eradication in the country 12 years back.    
    
Resource person Nepali urged everyone to visit health facilities to check and treat the leprosy because the medicine to this was provided free of cost.    
    
From the viewpoint of leprosy risk, Banke comes to top second while Kapilvastu district is the first. In Banke, the leprosy infection stands at 1.59 out of 10,000 persons.    
    
The leprosy patients are treated at Shining Hospital of Manpur, Janaki-3, which is a referral hospital in the district. Hospital chief Mangal Tharu informed that 74 lepers were found in the recent six months of the current fiscal year in the district. Among them, 30 patients are from Banke, 22 from Bardiya, five from Salyan and others.