Snowy Owl
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Nepali student tests positive for dengue
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="430"><tbody><tr><td class="dates" id="hDate" height="27"> Doha Time</td></tr></tbody></table>
KATHMANDU
A Nepal daily yesterday reported what could be Nepal's first confirmed case of dengue after a Nepali student, who had recently returned from New Delhi, where the mosquito-borne disease has killed at least 25 people, tested positive.
Hemant Sapkota, a management student at the capital's Kathmandu College of Management, who recently returned from Delhi, complained of high fever, headache and pain in the neck.
After a blood test, a private diagnostic laboratory in the capital reported the presence of the dengue virus in his blood.
Sapkota also contacted the Shukraraj Topical and Infectious Diseases Hospital in the capital where the resident dengue specialist, Basudev Pandey, is treating him, Nepal's largest selling daily Kantipur reported.
Meanwhile, Nepal's official media said dengue was suspected to be the cause of a death in southern Nepal.
Yogendra Thakur, a resident of Tikulim village in Rautahat district, died of fever this week.
Clinical tests pointed at dengue being the cause but further confirmatory tests were not done.
Thakur too had recently returned home from neighbouring Bihar state in India.
He was said to have been admitted to a private clinic in Sitamarhi district for treatment.
After a severe outbreak of dengue in several Indian states, four towns in Nepal, just across the border, have been put on alert.
This week, a team of specialist doctors were sent to Nepalgunj town in the midwest Himalayan state.
The other three vulnerable towns are Biratnagar in the east, the hometown of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, Birgunj in the south, Nepal's industrial hub, and Chitwan, a popular tourist destination famed for its wildlife park.
With Nepal and India sharing an open border, there is a danger of the disease spreading in Nepal from India. ? IANS