The Bhutanese Leading the way.
The Basic Health Unit (BHU) in Jurmey gewog in Mongar was alerted of an Acute Respiratory Illness (ARI) outbreak after a number of people contracted the disease in Sangkama chiwog in Mongar under Jurmey gewog last week. The count is more than 25 cases of ARI.
Located around twelve kilometers away from the BHU, and without transportation facilities and road, the BHU health assistant Yeshi Khandu, said that the field visit was made to the chiwog after hearing about the case. “It must be due to the location of the place that no single case from the chiwog was reported to the hospital, but we confirmed during the field visit which was made upon hearing from some people.”
Until the visit he said that people were taking Paracetamol (PCM) and Diclowin tablets which were not prescribed by any doctors in the hospital. The people complained of body aches, fever, loss of appetite, sore throat and fatigue, all at the same time.
The 25 cases come from 15 households, out of more than 25 households in the chiwog. “Most of the family members and some households couldn’t be met since they were involved in a ritual rites of a dead chiwog member, and some were away doing field work.”
“Along with the checkup, the awareness about the disease was also done to prevent the disease from spreading.”
The health assistant said the source of the disease is not known, but people suspect the students coming from Kenkhar for their summer vacation carried the disease. However, there have been no cases of ARI reported in Kenkhar.
