A nine-year-old girl from Narainapur-1 Matahaniya, Banke district, has been confirmed to have contracted Japanese encephalitis. The news was confirmed by Dr. Pratima Khadka, a pediatrician at Bheri Hospital.
The patient was hospitalized in the hospital’s ICU for a week and is now in stable condition. “Laboratory tests confirmed that the girl has Japanese encephalitis,” Dr. Khadka said. It remains unclear whether the girl had been vaccinated against the disease.
According to doctors, the Japanese encephalitis virus is transmitted by Culex mosquitoes that bite infected pigs and birds. The virus primarily affects the brain. Dr. Sanket Kumar Risal, Information Officer at Bheri Hospital, said that symptoms of Japanese encephalitis include fever, headache, chills, and vomiting.
Meanwhile, Bheri Hospital has established a separate ward to treat patients with diarrhea.
