A two-year-old child has died and 50 others have been taken ill due to diarrhoea at Chumchet settlement in Chumanubri Rural Municipality of Gorkha in the last 15 days.

Lopsang Lama, ward chairman of the rural municipality, said the disease has spread in northern Chumchet, which is five days walk from the district headquarters.

The disease has mostly affected children and senior citizens.

Serap Gurung, a Chumchet local, told the Post over phone that more than 50 people were suffering from diarrhoea.

They are also showing symptoms of nausea and fever, he added.

Kedar Parajuli, the chief at the District Public Health Office, said medical workers have been deployed to Chumchet to administer treatment to the sick.

Last week, a diarrhoea outbreak was also reported in Barpak, the epicentre of the 2015 Gorkha earthquake. The disease had claimed the life of a 15-month-old baby and affected scores of people.

Anti-rabies vaccine shortage

BUTWAL: Lumbini Zonal Hospital is running out of anti-rabies vaccines as the regional medical store has not supplied the vaccines in a long time, the hospital officials said. The hospital receives up to 15 patients daily who are in need of anti-rabies vaccines. With the hospital running out of anti-rabies vaccines, it will soon be unable to treat the people exposed to rabies virus, said Laxmiraj Regmi, the hospital’s information officer.