Swine flu panic spreads to 3rd Nepal district

KATHMANDU - Hundreds of people flocked to hospitals for tests with swine flu like symptoms while public schools were shut down for three days in a third district in western Nepal after fears of an epidemic loomed large in the region following detection of the virus in school students and security forces.

Myagdi district, adjacent to Baglung and Parbat, where the H1N1 virus was detected in nine samples taken from 12 people complaining of swine flu-like symptoms, came under scare after over 250 people rushed to hospitals with coughs, cold and other symptoms that may or may not be indicate of the virus.

The fear rose after the suspected outbreak of the disease in Parbat district last week where schools and an army camp have reported positive for the virus.

The government has rushed a team of doctors to the district while schools have been closed to contain the spread of the disease.

As the medical team began consultations with local authorities and civil society in Parbat, efforts to contain the disease were hampered because the only facilities to diagnose swine flu are in the capital city.

After swine flu was confirmed in nine people in Parbat - which include school children and soldiers at an army camp at the main town Kusma -similar symptoms were also reported in its neighbouring Baglung district, causing the Private and Boarding Schools Organisation in Nepal (Pabson), the umbrella body controlling private schools in the Himalayan republic, to shut down.

Now PABSON has also decided to keep all private schools in Myagdi closed till Tuesday following fears that swine flu has entered the district from Parbat.

The first case of swine flu was reported in Nepal in June when three members of the same family, who were travelling to Kathmandu from the US, tested positive at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu.

However, despite the recent panic, Nepal, unlike its southern neighbour India, has yet not reported any death.

While the number of detected cases has reached 60, the recovery rate has been cent percent unlike in India, where nearly 500 people have died so far.