KATHMANDU: Three cholera patients have escaped from the Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Diseases Hospital in Teku. Patients from Thaiba, Lalitpur, were admitted on Sunday. On Tuesday night, they escaped from the facility: one through the ventilation duct, and two others fled the ward.

The hospital's emergency room in-charge, Bhaneshwor Yadav, reported that the trio managed to escape within a one-and-a-half-hour window. A total of four patients had been brought to Teku Hospital from a rehabilitation center run by Drugs Free Society Nepal in Thaiba. One of these patients was transferred to Patan Hospital on Sunday due to severe complications.

Additionally, a young man who tested positive for cholera from the same center on July 14 is currently being treated in the isolation ward at Teku Hospital. Cholera was initially detected through a rapid test at the Thaiba rehabilitation center, but the final test results are still pending.

The District Public Health Office of Lalitpur and the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division had directed the patients to Teku Hospital after their cholera tests came back positive. Yadav suggested that the escapees, being drug addicts undergoing rehabilitation, may have fled due to their treatment situation.

As a result of their flight, there is worry that cholera may spread throughout the town. A search is underway to find the runaway patients. To manage the problem, the hospital has put strict safeguards in place.