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Government Not Serious About Diarrhea Epidemic
By KTM Metro Reporter in Kathmandu
On August 3, 2009, the state-run Radio Nepal has aired the report of its reporter from the diarrhea epidemic affected Jajarkot. The report from the Jajarkot district has said that the Nepal Army helicopter drops prescription drugs off at the helipad and it does not stop engine and immediately flies back leaving the sick persons from diarrhea to be taken by relatives and friends on a stretcher to the health camp located at the four-hour walking distance. The local administrator called Chief District Officer has said that the helicopter files back even without stopping its engines so he cannot even speak to the pilot; it has been so because of no coordination and the lack of cooperation among the concerned ministries such as Health, Defense and Home; the sick people would have been at the health camp within a few minutes if such a helicopter on its way back has taken sick persons and drop them off at the health camp.
On August 2, 2009, after a week-long visit to Germany for participating in one of the conferences, Minister for Health and Population Umakanta Chaudhary has disclosed that the government’s ‘relief package’ for the people affected by the diarrhea epidemic in Jajarkot, Rukum and other districts of Mid-Western region. The German agency called GTZ has provided the minister with funding for the visit and the participation in the conference without considering the importance of the minister to be in Nepal and manage the diarrhea epidemic. The minister and the German agency have not been free from the old mind-set of taking any free lunch made available to the minister and the funding agency to provide the minister with the funding just to please the minister without considering the need of the minister for managing the important business in the country. Both the minister and the German agency GTZ are equally responsible for the death of so many people in the remote areas of Nepal from the diarrhea epidemic as the most responsible person Minister Chaudhary has been away from the job of managing the epidemic for participating in the conference of dubious importance in Germany.
The minister has shamelessly said that none of the medics has fled the duty health campus and the diarrhea epidemic has come under control whereas the state-run media have been repeatedly reporting that some medics have fled the duty health camp for fear of contracting the disease and for not having supplies. Minister Umakanta Chaudhary has not been different from an infamous minister of the Panchayat era.
Prime Minister Madhav Nepal also has been equally responsible for the death of so many people from the diarrhea epidemic as he has sent the Minister for Health to Germany for a week rather than letting him to seriously manage the diarrhea epidemic. Prime Minister Nepal has boasted that he has urged all the government mechanism to engage in effectively combating the diarrhea epidemic but the reporter of the state-run Radio Nepal has revealed that the helicopter dropping prescription drugs off in the district has not been used for taking the seriously ill persons to the health camps not to mention the medics fleeing the duty health camps and the lack of supplies at the health camps. Is it the integrated-relief package Prime Minister Nepal has sent to the diarrhea-affected areas?
