The disease that claimed two children at Kanchanrup Municipality in Saptari district last week is yet to be identified.

Medical specialists have not reached the affected area even though the local unit immediately wrote to the concerned health authorities at the provincial and federal levels.

Thirteen-year-old Krishna Sada of Kanchanrup-5 and six-year-old Krish Jung Katuwal of Kanchanrup-7 died from the unidentified disease on October 23 and 24 respectively. According to local health workers, the victims suffered from a high fever, nausea and headache and vomited blood before they died.

Two months ago, four persons, including two children, died and more than 2,000 were taken ill due to an outbreak of an influenza that the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division later confirmed as Swine flu (H1N1) and Hong Kong flu (H3N2).

Residents of various wards of the municipality are in terror, fearing it to be another outbreak of the fatal influenza in their locality. Senior Auxiliary Health Worker Dambar Prasad Gupta at the municipality’s health section said the disease could not be identified at the local level and the authorities concerned did not dispatch medical specialists despite repeated requests. He said there are a few other cases with similar symptoms in the area. Mayor Basanta Kumar Mishra voiced displeasure at the lack of response from the higher authorities to the crisis.