Swine flu menace looms large over Nepal

Though not yet having lost a patient to swine flu, Nepal Friday sounded an alarm after the discovery that the epidemic could be spreading in two districts in the west where school children and security personnel tested positive for the disease.

Schools were closed in Parbat and its neighbouring district Baglung after viral fever raged in classrooms and 12 people tested positive for swine flu in Parbat.

Last week, an outbreak of viral fever was reported in Parbat's schools but the health authorities had not indicated the nature of the fever.

However, throat swabs taken from 12 people in Kusma, the main town in Parbat, were brought to capital Kathmandu for tests when nine were found to have contracted the influenza.

The patients are school children and soldiers from an army camp.

With the diagnosis, the number of swine flu patients in Nepal has gone up to 48. However, unlike Nepal's southern neighbour India, where the death toll has reached 478, there have been no deaths in Nepal with all the quarantined patients recovering.

But to the alarm of the authorities, viral fever outbreaks were reported in Baglung's schools as well.

From Friday, private schools in the district were shut down indefinitely.

The first swine flu case was reported in Nepal in June when three members of the same family, who were travelling to Kathmandu from the US, were found to be carrying the virus.

The rise of the disease in India has created fear in Nepal's border districts from where thousands of migrant workers flock to India seeking jobs.

Last updated on Nov 6^th, 2009 at 16:33 pm IST--IANS