Nepal

Kathmandu, September 6

If laboratory tests carried out at Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital today are anything to go by, roughly 50 per cent of those who visit the hospital with fever and muscle pain are dengue-infected.

According to the hospital, of the 372 blood tests done today 175 tested positive for dengue. &There has been a significant rise in the number of dengue infected patients at the hospital. Unless people are aware and start working on their own, it is difficult to prevent the infection,& said Anup Bastola, spokesperson and consultant tropical medicine physician at Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital .

With the rise in the number of patients at the hospital, it has started providing services to patients from a separate fever unit from Tuesday.

&There are at least 300 fever patients visiting the new unit of the hospital every day,& said Bastola. However, one should understand that every fever case is not dengue and every dengue is not fatal, he added.

Dengue virus is transmitted to humans when female Aedes aegypti mosquito bites a person. It is highly likely to bite early in the morning or before dusk.

&As there was an early pre-monsoon in the country it gave a favourable environment for the mosquitoes to breed. Mobility of people to and from dengue affected areas is a major cause for the rise of infection,& said Bastola.

There is a growing concern from various stakeholders on dengue prevention. Fever clinics have also been started at various hospitals in the country. Local levels should take initiative if we are to prevent dengue. We must keep our surroundings clean to help prevent mosquitoes from spreading,& said Epidemiology and Disease Control Division Director Bibek Kumar Lal.

Mosquitoes that cause dengue also lay eggs in water collected in flower pots, bottles, empty cans and air conditioners, according to Lal. They also lay eggs in places where rainwater gets collected, Lal added.

Symptoms of dengue include high fever, severe headache, pain behind eyes, pain in muscles and bones, rashes and back pain.

We have sent additional budget to at least 25 local levels across the country for dengue prevention. It has been quite difficult to create atmosphere of co-ordination among the three tiers of government. If we are to prevent dengue from spreading, then we must have a proper communication and co-ordination among three levels of the government.

We will be discussing further on plans and actions immediately upon the arrival of health minister tomorrow, said Mahendra Shrestha, spokesperson for Ministry of Health and Population.

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Kathmandu, September 6

The Supreme Court today stayed the Institute of MedicineMBBS entrance exam scheduled for tomorrow.

A single bench of Justice Tej Bahadur KC issued the order in response to a writ petition filed by Aayush Ojha, Shivani Chaudhary, Neha Das, Hikmat Sunar and Jivan Neupane against the IoM, other medical institutions and the government.

The petitioners have named the Medical Education Commission, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, IoM, Tribhuvan University, Patan Health Sciences Academy, BPKIHS and Kathmandu School of Medical Sciences as defendants.

The SC stated it was staying the IoM entrance exam planned for September 7 as issues raised by petitioners were related to provisions of the Medical Education Act and needed to be settled after hearing arguments from both the sides. The SC also ordered both the sides to present their arguments on September 11.

In the writ petition filed on Wednesday, the petitioners argued that the said medical institutions had planned to conduct MBBS entrance exams without allocating 75 per cent scholarship seats — a mandatory provision of the newly passed Medical Education Act.

The new act states that the objective of the law was to ensure geographical balance and social justice and institutional accountability.

The petitioners have said that BPKIHS allocated only 30 seats for scholarship out of 100 seats. Even its admission booklet states that it will make available only 33 seats for scholarship.

Kathmandu University has not stated how many seats it will make available for scholarship. Patan Health Science Academyadmission booklet states that it will make available 15 per cent seats for scholarship.

IoM has also not stated how many scholarships it will provide.

Meanwhile, TU officials held an emergency meeting and decided to postpone MBBS entrance exam scheduled for tomorrow. IoM Dean Jagadish Agrawal said bachelor level entrance exams scheduled between September 7 and 11 were also put off.

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FILE: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi gives a speech as he attends the opening ceremony of the new embassy of Uzbekistan in Beijing, China, August 19, 2019. Photo: Reuters

KATHMANDU: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) on Friday confirmed the two-day official visit of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Issuing a press statement today, the diplomatic mission in Kathmandu said the State Councilor and Minister for Foreign Affairs of the PeopleRepublic of China Wang Yi is scheduled to visit Nepal from September 8 to 10.

During Wang Yistay in Nepal, he will call on President Bidya Devi Bhandari and Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.

Visiting Chinese Foreign Minister will also hold delegation-level bilateral talks with his Nepali counterpart Pradeep Kumar Gyawali on Monday, according to the statement.

State Councilor and Minister for Foreign Affairs of the PeopleRepublic of China H.E. Mr. Wang Yi will pay an official visit to Nepal from 8 to 10 September 2019. Press release. @PradeepgyawaliK @bairagi_shanker @PaudyalBR @paudyallm https://t.co/9231Wlg4Vz

— MOFA of Nepal (@MofaNepal) September 6, 2019

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