The outbreak of cholera seen in Birganj a month and a half ago is now at a stable point. According to the data released by the Public Health Division of Birganj Metropolitan Municipality on Tuesday evening, the number of cholera infected people in the metropolis has reached 227 so far.

Even till October 11, the number of cholera infected in the metropolis was the same. All the infected have returned home after treatment. During this period, 1,646 patients with diarrhea and cholera have come from various hospitals in Birganj, 1,641 have returned home after treatment. Currently, 5 diarrhea patients are being treated.

Apart from Virganj, 18 cholera patients came to Pokhria Hospital for treatment. The number of infected has not been added there either.

The source of the infection was not found

In the early days, the local administration claimed that no one had died of cholera in Birganj. At the same time, a woman and a man died due to symptoms similar to cholera in Narayani Hospital and Birganj Health Care Hospital respectively. They were cremated without laboratory tests.

The then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli informed the House of Representatives that three people had died due to cholera in Birganj. But none of the government agencies of Birganj have officially confirmed that even one person has died of cholera so far.

With the outbreak of cholera, various speculations were made about its source. Most of them initially assumed that the infection was in the water of the drinking water company or the water of the recently buried deep borings. However, contrary to expectations, no cholera germs were found in the water by laboratory tests conducted by any agency.

Birgunj Metropolitan Municipality did not find the germs that spread diarrhea in the water test of the infected area conducted by its own laboratory. The reports of all the samples taken from the streams of seven places of Ward No. 10, 11 and 12 of the cholera-affected metropolis came as 'Negative'. The metropolis had collected and tested water samples from seven different streams of cholera-affected wards No. 10, 11 and 12. Out of them, three borings and four drinking water institutes collected samples and tested them. In all seven samples, E.coli germs that spread diarrhea were not found.  

The test was conducted in a modern laboratory established in the drinking water treatment center in Ward No. 1 Chhapkaiya of the metropolis.

A month and a half ago, when the Janakpur Regional Office under the Federal Sewerage and Management Department took samples of the institute's water from different places in Birganj and tested it in its laboratory, no cholera infection was found in the institute's water.  

2 days before the Gen G movement, the same department brought a team with experts from the World Health Organization and UNICEF to conduct a laboratory test of drinking water at different places in Birgunj, but cholera bacteria was not found in any of the water.

The risk is not over

Narayani Hospital spokesperson Dr. Udayanarayan Singh says that 4/5 diarrhea patients are coming to the hospital every day. Dr. Singh says that there is a risk of cholera infection appearing again after a few days due to heavy rains in Parsa and Bara recently. "After heavy rains, the risk of cholera infection spreading through the water pipes going from the drains to the houses has not gone away," he said, "we can only be sure if the cholera infection does not reappear for the next three to four days." According to Dr. Singh, this program is going to be conducted to control cholera infection.