Kathmandu, Sept. 13 -- With over 8,000 reported dengue cases and an estimated 80,000 infections in five months, Nepal's viral fever epidemic this year has gone viral. So far six people have died, and dengue has spread to higher altitudes where mosquito-borne diseases were unheard of.
In Kathmandu Valley it has struck ministers, politicians, businessmen, even doctors and their families, but it has also drawn attention to tropical diseases migrating to the mountains. Agriculture Minister Chakrapani Khanal, renowned ophthalmologist Sanduk Ruit and Nepal Communist Party leader Bamdev Gautam are all down with fever, but the government's response has been inadequate.
"Vector insects are moving up the Himalaya as warming increases, and so are ...