More than 100 children are found to have been infected with chickenpox in the past two weeks in Palpa district.

Children from Tansen Municipality, Kachal and Birkot, among other villages, have been infected by the highly contagious disease caused by primary infection with varicella zoster virus.

Parents are worried after their children started falling sick during their examinations.

Sumitra Rana of Tansen Municipality-4 said her daughter has not been able to appear the examination this year after she fell ill.

Many of the infected students are dragging themselves to sit for their final examinations.

Dhan Bahadur Khamcha, the headmaster of Yubabarsha Secondary School in Kachal, said a majority of the infected students from grade one to eight have been appearing in the final examination.

“We send them immediately to the health post in emergency,” said Khamcha. 

In Birkot, the health workers of District Health Office (DHO) administered treatment to the patients of chicken pox at Pokharichhap, Goindanda and Malekh Khraka.

Umashankar Prasad Chaudhary, chief of the DHO, said the health workers have been mobilised in the affected areas. “In Birkot alone, a team of health workers provided treatment to 29 patients,” said Chaudhary.