Nepal is experiencing a worrying spread of dengue fever higher up into Himalayan valleys where the mosquito-borne disease was unknown until a few years ago.&nbsp; In 2025, 15 of the country’s 16 high-altitude districts reported infections, marking an unprecedented ascent of the vector and virus over 2,400m. A Tribhuvan University study has confirmed the presence of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes and their larvae, in Jumla (2,438m).&nbsp; In Solu Khumbu district, no systematic scientific research has yet been conducted, but dengue cases have been reported in patients without travel history, suggesting the presence of vectors at the base of Mt Everest as well.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260425060412_7f9b36514e85af9da5501f83b2d34c7bb12b01ae8e8e00317898938b47cf4544.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20260425060412_7f9b36514e85af9da5501f83b2d34c7bb12b01ae8e8e00317898938b47cf4544" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="1333" loading="lazy" alt="Mosquitos ascend to the base of Mt Everest NT"> <figcaption>Chandannath Municipality, 2,438m, in Jumla is the highest that the dengue-carrying Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitos have been detected.</figcaption> </figure>  Until recently, Aedes mosquitoes had only been detected up to 2,100m. Over the past two years, however, dengue has spread across almost the entire country, affecting 76 of Nepal’s 77 districts in 2024 and 2025.&nbsp; The Epidemiology and Disease Control Division data shows 42,647 people were infected since January 2024, 19 of whom died. But the number of unreported infections is probably much higher. Scientists from the Nepal Health Research Council (NHRC), in collaboration with the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, collected mosquito samples to analyse them and examine how they are adapting to warmer temperatures and &nbsp;resistance to insecticides. The specimens are carefully observed, photographed, and catalogued, allowing researchers to document patterns of survival, distribution, and resistance.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260425060412_cadd8a73f7f0bff79d174eea921dc6046f3a4f52a0cc34f3d4c2e12a8cc9ce29.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20260425060412_cadd8a73f7f0bff79d174eea921dc6046f3a4f52a0cc34f3d4c2e12a8cc9ce29" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="1333" loading="lazy" alt="Mosquitos ascend to the base of Mt Everest NT"> <figcaption>Santos Pandey, Pratima Bhandari and Sangita Chand examine dengue vector mosquitoes under a microscope at the NHRC laboratory in Kathmandu.The entomology unit uses stereomicroscopes to identify the subtle differences between the Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitos. Differences in thoracic markings in the insects helps determine disease risk and guide surveillance and control strategies for dengue and other mosquito-borne illnesses.</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260425060412_48b8ed502a8cc47da9c6e8c6bd856e7961ffc0e804174ff7fb190057a286c7b7.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20260425060412_48b8ed502a8cc47da9c6e8c6bd856e7961ffc0e804174ff7fb190057a286c7b7" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="1333" loading="lazy" alt="Mosquitos ascend to the base of Mt Everest NT"> <figcaption>A female Aedes aegypti mosquito under a microscope. Studying both larvae and adults to detect colour or shape variations may indicate insecticide resistance or adaptation to different altitudes. Each specimen is photographed for analysis and digital archiving.</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260425060412_cdf3ecfc317963e228ab08134300f38d818f394046f085169a2be9f886a134c2.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20260425060412_cdf3ecfc317963e228ab08134300f38d818f394046f085169a2be9f886a134c2" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="1333" loading="lazy" alt="Mosquitos ascend to the base of Mt Everest NT"> <figcaption>Sushila Devi Shah, 38, at the Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital last year. She suffered severe muscle and eye pain, headache, and fever, the main symptoms of dengue. Complications can be serious if untreated.</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260425060412_4a3ada611edf7551f76969b8ab2b7d7482aedacdfaec570c1024851c9bc57ccd.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20260425060412_4a3ada611edf7551f76969b8ab2b7d7482aedacdfaec570c1024851c9bc57ccd" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="1333" loading="lazy" alt="Mosquitos ascend to the base of Mt Everest NT"> <figcaption>Shiva Rajbanshi of the NHRC captures mosquitos and larvae in a breeding site. This work helps assess mosquito distribution and guides prevention efforts in areas where rising temperatures allow mosquitoes to survive and proliferate.</figcaption> </figure>  Experts attribute the spread of dengue into Nepal’s mountainous regions primarily to global warming, which creates more favourable conditions for mosquito survival and reproduction, even in areas once considered at low or no risk. The dengue-carrying mosquito mainly bites in the early mornings and evenings when people are out and about. Increased mobility within Nepal with the spreading road network and greater international connectivity have also contributed to circulating the virus. As a result, dengue is reaching Himalayan communities with poor healthcare facilities.&nbsp; In these remote and hard-to-access areas, many residents continue to rely on traditional Tibetan medicine, known as Sowa Rigpa, practiced by traditional Amchi healers who enjoy strong cultural trust and have long served as key healthcare providers within local communities.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260425060412_fbd0e125f59b7c071a61f700d08f1e37409ecc647afa8ec888c0ed8a7fc991ce.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20260425060412_fbd0e125f59b7c071a61f700d08f1e37409ecc647afa8ec888c0ed8a7fc991ce" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="1335" loading="lazy" alt="Mosquitos ascend to the base of Mt Everest NT"> <figcaption>Jomsom at 2,743m has seen erratic and extreme weather patterns with dry months becoming drier, and the monsoon seeing intense storms in this arid region. Average temperatures are rising, creating favourable conditions for mosquito-borne diseases. In 2025, nine cases of dengue were reported in Mustang district.</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260425060412_59398ee65a096665bb5c2c82b92de3443809673e6bdbe1405ee92b6886210cb7.jpg" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20260425060412_59398ee65a096665bb5c2c82b92de3443809673e6bdbe1405ee92b6886210cb7" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="1333" loading="lazy" alt="Mosquitos ascend to the base of Mt Everest NT"> <figcaption>Khedup Loden Gurung checks a patient’s pulse in a clinic in Jomsom at 2,743m last year. Amchi are traditional Tibetan healers trained in Sowa Rigpa. Diagnosis is based on pulse reading (nad-par), visual examination of urine and tongue, and dialogue with the patient. Because Sowa Rigpa focuses on the individual’s overall energetic state rather than on specific pathogens, there is no direct equivalent to the biomedical concept of ‘dengue’.</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260425060412_421aba7152f520b640016061901108a9b7755e0feff157e7585f4f3fd2eb2ca4.jpg" data-media-id="editor_7" data-image-id="20260425060412_421aba7152f520b640016061901108a9b7755e0feff157e7585f4f3fd2eb2ca4" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="1333" loading="lazy" alt="Mosquitos ascend to the base of Mt Everest NT"> <figcaption>Handmade Sowa Rigpa herbal remedies crafted using traditional methods. After drying and processing, medicinal plants are ground by hand and combined according to precise traditional formulas. The mixtures are prepared into powders, pills, or pastes using simple tools and manual techniques passed down through generations. Before distribution, the medicines are ritually blessed.</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260425060412_22970174d6ad5a7c192ec43d89eae0a8aed47ed77e9a670d85f1f473ddcfe136.jpg" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="20260425060412_22970174d6ad5a7c192ec43d89eae0a8aed47ed77e9a670d85f1f473ddcfe136" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="1333" loading="lazy" alt="Mosquitos ascend to the base of Mt Everest NT"> <figcaption>Khedup Loden Gurung treats a young patient in a clinic in Jomsom. Rooted in Buddhist monastic culture, many amchis approach healing as an act of compassion and service, practicing medicine as a vocation rather than a commercial activity for profit.</figcaption> </figure>  Practiced across the Himalayan region and influenced by Indian Ayurveda and Buddhist philosophy, Sowa Rigpa combines clinical observation, herbal remedies, and a holistic view of health, in which body, mind, environment, and spiritual dimensions are deeply interconnected. To curb the spread of dengue, Nepal’s health authorities have a two-pronged prevention and awareness. Strategy involves using insect repellents and mosquito nets, proper household environmental management, and community campaigns to eliminate stagnant water and strengthen vector surveillance.&nbsp; The goal is to improve the capacity of communities to respond promptly to emerging health threats in a territory increasingly exposed to the impacts of climate change. Vaccines against the two main strains of dengue exist, but they are expensive and have side effects. Prevention and vector management are therefore the primary strategies available to combat dengue.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260425060412_4ca7d50a4edd99f2ac930a21794a9e9a42d070565bf0fc1d7254405f5bd2e329.jpg" data-media-id="editor_9" data-image-id="20260425060412_4ca7d50a4edd99f2ac930a21794a9e9a42d070565bf0fc1d7254405f5bd2e329" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="1333" loading="lazy" alt="Mosquitos ascend to the base of Mt Everest NT"> <figcaption>Solukhumbu District Hospital at Phaplu, 2,413m. Hospitals in these highland areas work under challenging conditions, managing a range of health needs with the resources at hand.</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260425060412_3e51b4047b04ce428a171efc1047a71d2e5cbe1dbf6dfe2738d2c8ac433fee05.jpg" data-media-id="editor_10" data-image-id="20260425060412_3e51b4047b04ce428a171efc1047a71d2e5cbe1dbf6dfe2738d2c8ac433fee05" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="1333" loading="lazy" alt="Mosquitos ascend to the base of Mt Everest NT"> <figcaption>Bijay Singh Kushwaha collects sample blood from Nara Maya Khatri, 87, admitted with suspected dengue for a rapid diagnostic test. In recent years, such cases have become more familiar in the region, and the hospital is increasingly accustomed to managing them.</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260425060412_61aa4750bf8948fce4ad2f2c1d80ca6d9849f58827c8232a2c3649c9d4c8b2c0.jpg" data-media-id="editor_11" data-image-id="20260425060412_61aa4750bf8948fce4ad2f2c1d80ca6d9849f58827c8232a2c3649c9d4c8b2c0" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="1333" loading="lazy" alt="Mosquitos ascend to the base of Mt Everest NT"> <figcaption>Sunita Baral and her team work in the NHRC laboratory.</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260425060412_2742b31fa889984e5c87c41c614a4b9d848fc41095ec1dd70d2b303ec29d8435.jpg" data-media-id="editor_12" data-image-id="20260425060412_2742b31fa889984e5c87c41c614a4b9d848fc41095ec1dd70d2b303ec29d8435" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="1333" loading="lazy" alt="Mosquitos ascend to the base of Mt Everest NT"> <figcaption>Pramod Shrestha installing a data logger at an NHRC mosquito breeding site last year to track temperature and humidity in real time — conditions that determine the mosquito life cycle, influencing development, survival, and egg hatching. Certain species including Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus, prosper only within narrow climatic ranges, so these measurements help understand how mosquitos adapt to climate change.</figcaption> </figure>   <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260425060412_09706a1f0d5ea8e7e9f393b770a52e3b34e95e1fc5e01b816e0c39920582faf1.jpg" data-media-id="editor_13" data-image-id="20260425060412_09706a1f0d5ea8e7e9f393b770a52e3b34e95e1fc5e01b816e0c39920582faf1" data-rendition-name="original" width="2000" height="1333" loading="lazy" alt="Mosquitos ascend to the base of Mt Everest NT"> <figcaption>Fog in Pokhara Valley moving up the Annapurnas, just as dengue-carrying mosquitoes move up the mountains. Rising temperatures, coupled with unseasonal pre-monsoon downpours provide ideal breeding conditions for dengue-carrying mosquitos. These conditions enable vectors to survive at increasingly higher altitudes. Public awareness and prevention remain key factors to limit the spread of the dengue virus.</figcaption> </figure>  ©2026YuriSegalerba ©YuriSegalerba ©YuriSegalerba©YuriSegalerba

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Mosquitos ascend to the base of Mt Everest

Most disasters strike without warning. But dengue fever which spreads when infected mosquitos breed in monsoon puddles, is largely predictable and preventable. Densely populated Kathmandu with stagnant pools of water has all the ingredients for another outbreak like the deadly one in 2022. Last year there were about<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/new-dengue-outbreak-likely-this-monsoon" target="_blank"> 55,000 infections and 88 fatalities</a> officially reported across Nepal in its biggest dengue outbreak yet, the real figure is probably higher. Hospitals were out of capacity, over-medication was rampant, and almost every house in Kathmandu had multiple members struck down with infection. This year, Nepal had already seen <a href="https://kathmandupost.com/health/2023/07/08/dengue-spreads-to-66-districts-one-person-dead-over-1-200-test-positive" target="_blank">over 1,000 dengue infections </a>by end-June. Starting in Dharan where one person has already died, the disease has now reached most of the 77 districts. Even so, many cases are never reported, and many recuperate at their homes. Furthermore, 80% of dengue cases are asymptomatic. “We are not even at the peak of the dengue season, and cases are already surging. It is very likely that this will further increase as rains begin to dwindle post-monsoon,” warns Sher Bahadur Pun, virologist at the Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital in Kathmandu. “Nepal’s poor surveillance and record keeping also means diseases like dengue are seriously under-reported.”&nbsp; Lack of public awareness about dengue management and prevention adds to the problem. A third of dengue patients admitted to Teku Hospital last year <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/as-covid-abates-nepal-sees-dengue-outbreak" target="_blank">did not even know</a> that the disease is mosquito-borne and spreads in the daytime.&nbsp; “At least this wasn’t the case with Covid-19, but with dengue, people struggled to adopt the correct precautions due to lack of knowledge,” explains Pun. “Even more alarming: once infected, people took strong medications like painkillers and antibiotics unaware that they are ineffective and often even harmful in dengue.”&nbsp; Although there is no specific medication for dengue, doctors recommend paracetamol to ease the fever and enough fluids to replenish the body. Dengue has no cure.&nbsp; Dengue was first reported in Nepal in 2004, but it was not until 2019 that it spread like wildfire in major urban centres. Two years of Covid lockdowns significantly reduced the caseload after the 2019 outbreak, but last year, it struck again.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/new-dengue-outbreak-likely-this-monsoon">New dengue outbreak likely this monsoon</a>, Sonia Awale  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230717150716_97f01f95d37cc29c4c2a68ba54185635449829fa53a3064d0b83ba5714263db9.png" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20230717150716_97f01f95d37cc29c4c2a68ba54185635449829fa53a3064d0b83ba5714263db9" data-rendition-name="original" width="1072" height="577" loading="lazy" alt="Dengue graph NT"> <figcaption>Trend of dengue cases in Nepal 2006 - 2023 June, SOURCE: MoHP Situation Update</figcaption> </figure>  But even as dengue starts to spread in Kathmandu Valley, elected local officials do not seem to be too concerned. When the Ministry of Health and Population called on all local unit representatives in the Valley to discuss the outbreak on 9 July, 12 out of the 18 units <a href="https://kathmandupost.com/health/2023/07/11/dengue-search-and-destroy-campaign-to-be-launched-in-kathmandu-valley" target="_blank">avoided the meeting altogether.</a> Although there are some fumigation and dengue search and destroy campaigns <a href="https://kathmandupost.com/health/2023/07/11/dengue-search-and-destroy-campaign-to-be-launched-in-kathmandu-valley" target="_blank">set to be launched in Kathmandu</a> soon, with the monsoon already started, it may be a case of too little <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/state-of-malaise" target="_blank">too late</a>. It should have started before the onset of the monsoon. “Though not as many as last year, we are already seeing a worrying number of mosquitoes near areas with stagnant water. And when they fly into homes, chances are the virus is already spreading from those infected,” explains Pun.&nbsp; This negligence and delay in action comes despite repeated warnings from experts. Officials knew far in advance that <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/new-dengue-outbreak-likely-this-monsoon" target="_blank">last year’s virus is still in mosquito larvae, waiting for the monsoon</a>, and yet, preventive measures, emergency preparedness, and capacity building were ignored. The risk of dengue fever will rise in the coming months of August and September, although some public health experts say serious dengue outbreaks seem to happen after a gap of two years. With climate change, mosquitos are moving up the mountains in Nepal, bringing mosquito-borne disease like malaria, encephalitis and dengue higher. The number of cases officially recorded between January and June this year is nine times higher than last year. Districts like Sankhuwasabha are on the <a href="https://edcd.gov.np/uploads/resource/64a3d5414aad6.pdf#:~:text=This%20figure%20was%20more%20than,of%20cases%20reported%20in%202019.&amp;text=As%20of%2030th%20June%2C%202023,listed%20details%20in%20Figure%202." target="_blank">top-ten list</a> for most cases reported, even though it is in the high mountains, and indicating how global warming is <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mosquitoes-move-up-mountains-as-the-earth-warms" target="_blank">pushing mosquito breeding grounds further north.</a> Bagmati is once again the hardest-hit province, possibly due to higher population density. Read also:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/dengue-days-are-here-to-stay"> Dengue days are here to stay</a>, Sonia Awale  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230717150716_b1a8b5c7b8e50f5e388f04a41877f2520ffa8f334c04343b357fd034d4166e6d.png" data-media-id="editor_12" data-image-id="20230717150716_b1a8b5c7b8e50f5e388f04a41877f2520ffa8f334c04343b357fd034d4166e6d" data-rendition-name="original" width="1088" height="433" loading="lazy" alt="Dengue graph"> <figcaption>Dengue cases reported by province in 2023 January to June.  SOURCE: MoHP Situation Update</figcaption> </figure>  Tackling Dengue: what does it really take? Ugonnaya Caleb-Ugwuowo recalls treating children and pregnant women struck down with dengue fever in a local hospital in Lagos. The Nigerian doctor and public health expert specialises in managing outbreaks, and says she often felt helpless at being unable to correctly diagnose and treat them due to lack of facilities. Nepal could learn from Nigeria's experience. Dengue fever is endemic in almost all states in Nigeria. “Although the country is still struggling, the challenges and epidemics Nigeria has faced over the years have shaped our understanding of what it takes to tackle outbreaks like the ones Nepal faced last year and in 2019,” says Ugonnaya.&nbsp; It starts with surveillance, she says, adding: “The government in Nepal should, as a matter of urgency, conduct dengue surveys in all provinces to assess the proportion and magnitude of different <a href="https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/dengue-viruses-22400925/#:~:text=The%20Dengue%20Serotypes,antibodies%20in%20human%20blood%20serum." target="_blank">dengue serotypes</a> circulating freely. Following this, dengue should be made reportable from all local health institutions directly into the national health information system." Dengue fever for the first time, though debilitating, often does no harm. But getting it a second time with a different serotype poses a significantly higher risk of the disease progressing to haemorrhagic fever, where blood thins out and can start leaking from veins, causing potentially fatal internal bleeding. This is what makes serotype surveys so important. A <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jtm/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/jtm/taad034/7087081?redirectedFrom=fulltext" target="_blank">study</a> aiming to report dengue serotypes seen in Kathmandu during last year’s outbreak showed DEN-1 and DEN-3 to be the dominant serotypes, with only negligible cases of DEN-2 reported. But such studies should be conducted nationwide, so that the risk of infection with other serotypes can be correctly determined. Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, both of which have reported elevated levels of dengue infections this year, have direct flights into Nepal. “Although the inflow of infected tourists also poses a great threat, the greater concern should be the mosquitoes in and around places where these tourists go, like airports, temples and major tourist sites,” warns Pun. If barring flights is not an option, vector control is the best way to minimise transmission. For this, fumigation and dengue search and destroy efforts should be concentrated in tourist sites first. Simple source reduction strategies like covering open water containers, using insecticides in canals, parks and fields exist, but deploying genetically modified mosquitoes to reduce the population of disease carriers can also control vector-borne diseases. Caleb-Ugwuowo adds that Nepal already has a decentralised framework of healthcare, so proper surveillance is possible. More importantly, the two previous outbreaks have given experts an idea of what needs to be done: capacity building in hospitals, sanitation and drainage facilities, public awareness, and emergency preparedness before the disease strikes. Pun agrees: “We must learn from other countries as well as from our own past experience, and act to contain this outbreak. Things will get progressively worse in the next few weeks, so there is no time to beat around the bush, especially with dengue already knocking at our doors.” Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mosquitoes-move-up-mountains-as-the-earth-warms">Mosquitoes move up mountains as the earth warms</a>, Sonia Awale

Dengue danger returns with monsoon

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131128/637235369c7e80680e0c4975jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="5827" height="3885"/><figcaption>All Photos: Suman Nepali</figcaption></figure>For the past two years, the preoccupation of the government and people of Nepal has been with the pandemic. But just as the fourth wave of Covid-19 started to subside, Kathmandu and other towns across Nepal have been hit by dengue outbreaks.For the past few weeks, Shukraraj Tropical and Communicable Disease Hospital in Teku has been crowded with patients with fever. At first, epidemiologists there thought it was a new Covid strain, but the symptoms were different: severe body ache, eye pain, high fever and nausea.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131128/6372353a9c7e80680e0c4976jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2304" height="1536"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131128/6372353d9c7e80680e0c4977jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2304" height="1536">In Kathmandu Valley, there were hotspots mostly in inner city Patan and the outskirts. Hundreds of patients have been admitted into hospitals, and the number of cases diagnosed in hospitals has surpassed 1,000 -- more than in the previous outbreak in the summer of 2019.Last year, there were only 10 patients at the Teku hospital in the second week of August last year, whereas there were 295 dengue patients just in the past week.This week, 120 dengue cases were reported in Lalitpur, 70 in Rupandehi, 110 in Kathmandu, and dozens more in Nawalparasi West and Bhaktapur, seven each in Dhading, Gulmi and Kapilvastu, six from Arghakhanchi, and five each from Tehrathum, Sindhuli and Makwanpur. There are six patients with dengue in ICU.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131132/637235419c7e80680e0c4978jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2304" height="1536">The number of dengue patients in hospitals has now exceeded those suffering from Covid. Doctors say there are probably thousands more with dengue fever recovering or being treated at home.  Dengue is transmitted from one infected person to the next by bites of the Aedes aegyti mosquitos during the day, and is caused by four different virus sero-types. Patients infected with one serotype of the virus will not have immunity against the other three types and there can be multiple infections.  Also called 'break-bone fever' patients contract the disease 3-7 days after the mosquito bite, and the high fever usually lasts up to a week, although it leaves the weak for up to a month.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131132/637235459c7e80680e0c4979jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2304" height="1536"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131132/637235489c7e80680e0c497ajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2304" height="1536">There is no treatment for dengue, since antibiotics are not effective against viruses. Doctors recommend paracetamol to ease pains and to bring down fever, and plenty of fluids. More severe cases of dengue can result in internal haemorhage and may require hospitalisation.“People still do not believe that mosquitoes bite during the day. While sleeping at night, they adopt all the safety standards from the hammock, but they ignore it during the day," says Sher Bahadur Pun, the head of the hospital’s clinical research unit.He says that measures should be taken to avoid mosquito bites in schools and offices as well as at home. “People are aware when they are at home, but they should be most aware in schools, offices, areas where houses are under construction and there are pools of stagnant water,” he says.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131132/6372354b9c7e80680e0c497bjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="5905" height="3937">Pun's informal survey among patients at Teku showed that a third of them do not even know that dengue is transmitted by mosquito bites during the day. This is why the viral fever is spreading among students, with cases of entire classes of some schools being sick.Pun also warns against taking strong medications for dengue, and says that certain pain-killers and antibiotics can actually make the patients' condition worse.“Dengue causes severe body ache, so people look for strong medications for this. We have been giving cetamol for fever, which sometime does not alleviate pain like other painkillers,” says Pun. "However, using Brufen, Flexzone, Nims can be very harmful."<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114131132/6372354f9c7e80680e0c497cjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="5210" height="3473">A study conducted  at Teku Hospital on the outbreak of dengue in Nepal from 2006 to 2019 found that many patients had become sicker because of prescription medicines they took without consultation, or because doctors had prescribed the wrong medicine thinking it was some other kind of fever.Recently, Pun came across a dengue patient  who was bleeding from the eyes after taking Flexzone continuously for five days. "I had never seen such a case before," he says, "patients who are being treated at home should be admitted to the hospital immediately if they have serious problems."Read more: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/the-dangers-of-the-dengue-virus/">The dangers of the dengue virus</a>, Tom Robertson

As Covid abates, Nepal sees dengue outbreak

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022112916110/63861ea79c7e80680e0ccddajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="799" height="536"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure>There have been few days without rain this April and May in Kathmandu. That means more disease for Kathmandu. Not COVID-19, but the virus we used to talk about -- last year's scary unknown disease, dengue.The year 2019 saw Nepal's worst ever outbreak of dengue, with 15,000 people infected, many times the previous high. Dengue was particularly bad in the Kathmandu Valley. At least six people died.The medical journal The Lancet has warned that Kathmandu could see a dengue ‘explosion’ because it has become ‘an ideal breeding ground’ for the mosquito that carries dengue -- the notorious Aedes aegypti. Already in 2020, four cases have been reported in Kathmandu, and four in Lalitpur.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/big-story-of-small-pox-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Big story of smallpox in Nepal</a>, Tom Robertson<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/viruses-past-present-and-future/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Viruses past, present and future</a>, Tom RobertsonDengue spiked in 2019 with outbreaks around the developing world. In recent years, Delhi, Dhaka, Ho Chi Minh City, Senegal and Singapore have faced bad outbreaks. A dengue outbreak in Delhi in 2015 inundated hospitals and clinics across the city.Dengue likes warm humid conditions. Before corona, dengue was the world's fastest growing dangerous virus, increasing four-fold in just over a decade. Two of every five people around the world, nearly 3 billion people, live in dengue risk areas where it is a leading cause of illness. Each year approximately 100 million people contract the disease, and over 20,000 die.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022112916110/63861eaa9c7e80680e0ccddbjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="961" height="540"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Like malaria, dengue is actually several different diseases that we give a single name. There are four dengue viruses: Dengue 1, 2, 3, and 4. A person can catch each one, and get sick as many as four times.A first infection generally brings only mild flu symptoms, if any at all. But a second infection can cause ‘severe dengue’ with plasma leakage, bleeding, and shock. This can kill. No treatment exists for dengue, but generally symptoms can be managed.<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/climate-health-emergency/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Climate health emergency</a>, Sonia Awale<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mosquitoes-move-up-mountains-as-the-earth-warms/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mosquitoes move up mountains as the earth warms</a>, Sonia AwaleDengue's main mosquito host, Aedes aegypti, is no ordinary mosquito. In a species known for death and deviousness, it has few rivals. Not many mosquitoes have so successfully defied human efforts at control, including in recent decades.Long before dengue, Aedes aegypti carried a far deadlier disease: yellow fever. During the 16th and 17th, slave ships brought yellow fever carrying A. aegypti from Africa to the Americas, devastating indigenous populations and reshaping the region's balance of power. In the early twentieth century, the A. aegypti -- yellow fever combination almost blocked the construction of the Panama Canal.Most wildlife avoid humans. Not A. aegypti. It loves us, particularly the ecological disorder we often create. The more humans, the more disturbed ecosystems, the more A. aegypti. Cities, especially disorganised cities, create ideal habitat: lots of standing water for breeding and lots of humans for feeding.Dengue's other mosquito carrier is A. albopictus.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022112916110/63861eac9c7e80680e0ccddcjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="463"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022112916110/63861eaf9c7e80680e0ccdddjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="635"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The Lancet points to dengue's major causes: climate change, relentless and haphazard urbanisation, brisk trade and transit from dengue-infested areas, and poor health infrastructure. As Kathmandu grows and gets more connected to other parts of Asia, dengue spreads.Climate change has been overrated as a cause. Warming temperatures can extend the range of Aedes carriers but other causes deserve more attention. ‘Last summer’s explosion of dengue in Kathmandu Valley was <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mosquitoes-move-up-mountains-as-the-earth-warms/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mosquitoes-move-up-mountains-as-the-earth-warms/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1590920172779000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHqCreNEFDji4GDyS_wUW1JkpUOGA">blamed on climate change</a>,’ the Nepali Times recently noted, ‘but it was actually a perfect storm of crowded and squalid living conditions, poor drainage, greater mobility of people, and a particularly wet monsoon.’The real problem is disorganised urbanisation. The A. aegypti carrier thrives in small collections of clean water in flower pots, old car and truck tyres, uncovered water containers, and even puddles. It bites people early morning and at dusk.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-is-a-microcosm-of-all-of-the-changes-in-world-health/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">"Nepal is a microcosm of all of the changes in world health"</a><a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/ke-garne-attitude-kills-people/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">K garne attitude kills people</a>, Laxmi BasnetNepal, like much of the developing world, has witnessed dramatic and disorderly urban growth in recent years, much in the lowlands along highways. ‘Nepal's Tarai," Mukesh Pokhrel recently wrote also in this newspaper, "is turning into one endless elongated metropolis.’Kathmandu itself grew four-fold between 1980 and 2010, and is one of the fastest growing cities in one of the world's fastest urbanising regions.'<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mosquitoes-move-up-mountains-as-the-earth-warms/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/mosquitoes-move-up-mountains-as-the-earth-warms/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1590920172779000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHqCreNEFDji4GDyS_wUW1JkpUOGA">Cities like Kathmandu are perfect breeding grounds</a> for the Aedes mosquito,' says Jeremy Farrar of the Wellcome Trust in an interview with this paper. 'Kathmandu’s climate is changing, the city is growing exponentially in a haphazard way and the mosquito loves highly dense populations of people.'<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/east-west-city/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">East-West City</a>, Mukesh Pokhrel<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=19301#.XtI_7y2B3-Y" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Dengue fever</a>, Buddha BasnyatThe Lancet highlights what might happen in a dengue explosion in Kathmandu. ‘A tug-of-war might occur between the worried well and the truly sick,’ it says. ‘Hospitals might be overwhelmed and many needy patients with other diseases could be turned away.’Doctors inexperienced with the disease pose a particular worry. They could misunderstand its dynamics and cause unnecessary deaths by over-treating with unneeded antibiotics, transfusions, and excessive intravenous fluids. This has happened elsewhere.The dengue-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquito is difficult to control. Brazil eradicated it twice, in the 1950s and in the 1970s, and twice it returned. Several factors explain why: a lack of sustained careful epidemiological surveillance, insecticide resistance, the high costs of materials and wages, insufficient community participation and coordination with the health sector, and, crucially, the spread of haphazard urban development. Narrow control programs inevitably run into trouble.The World Health Organisation (WHO) stresses both micro and macro efforts to fight dengue. Individual families can put tight lids on water containers. They can eliminate breeding spots such as empty cans, bottles, and tires. It also says community engagement and building country capacity for environmental management and disease surveillance is important.“Locally adapted vector control measures such as household water storage management and, more importantly, engaging individuals and communities to manage their immediate environment are essential to controlling the spread of the disease,” says Raman Velayudhan, head of WHO’s Vector and Ecology Management Unit.School-based awareness programs, The Lancet authors noted, can help block dengue's spread. ‘Students are good learners and can be taught to effectively use repellents and mosquito nets and get rid of water collections near their homes and schools; students will then spread this information to their parents.’ Several countries have implemented successful school programs.Historian Frank Snowden sums it up: "Dengue takes full advantage of societal neglect and the absence or cessation of vector control programs."Tom Robertson, Ph D, is an environmental historian who writes about the history of malaria in Nepal. And just wrote a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/big-story-of-small-pox-in-nepal/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/big-story-of-small-pox-in-nepal/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1590920172779000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFk193f6QnfjiWqivawrVZt2FPA4A">five-part series on smallpox</a> for Nepali Times as part of his History of Disease column.

Tom Robertson

The dangers of the dengue virus

Home Minister Sudan Gurung resigned on Wednesday following increasing coverage of and criticism over his investment in companies linked to controversial Nepali business figures Sulav Agrawal and Deepak Bhatta, who are currently under investigation for money laundering.
‘I am resigning from the position of Home Minister effective today to ensure impartial investigation into matters associated with me, and to make sure that there is no conflict of interest,’ Gurung wrote, saying that morality and public trust mattered more to him than office.
Gurung ended his message to the nation in English as he invoked the security forces, writing: &nbsp;‘For my country and For the respect of our security forces and For the youths of Nepal.’
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Gurung has become the second member to depart the Cabinet, serving for less than a month, despite the Nepali electorate’s hopes that Nepal would finally get a stable government after the RSP’s sweeping victory in the March elections.&nbsp;
Prime Minister Balendra Shah had sought clarification from Gurung on Wednesday after new details emerged about his shares in two micro-insurance companies, Star Micro Insurance and Liberty Micro Life, which are said to have been issued their licence by the Nepal Insurance Authority at the behest of Bhatta and Agrawal.
Gurung denied financial misconduct, saying that his investment in the two companies was included in his asset disclosure and insisting the misunderstanding is because of how the shares have been categorised.&nbsp;
Leaders within the RSP had called for an internal investigation into Gurung as they sought to maintain the party’s platform of clean governance and transparency. As such, Gurung’s position had become increasingly untenable, especially since former Labour Minister was sacked without being given an opportunity for clarification over a disciplinary breach involving his wife’s appointment to the Health Insurance Board.&nbsp;
On social media, Sah on Tuesday seemed to express dissatisfaction over the PM’s request for Gurung’s clarification.&nbsp;
Judging by the comments under Gurung’s resignation post, a significant part of the Nepali public seems to be firmly on Gurung’s side, blaming the mass media and what they call mouthpieces of old parties for driving him out of the Cabinet.&nbsp;
This is a reflection of his meteoric rise and the continued support he has maintained since he stepped into the spotlight as the leader of Nepal’s youth movement in the aftermath of the September protest.&nbsp;
Gurung has made headlines constantly ever since he burst onto the national stage, which includes questions over the degree of his and his organisation Hami Nepal’s involvement in the September 9 unrest, calls to divulge details behind Hami Nepal’s finances, and not paying five years of rent for an illegal lakefront property in Pokhara.&nbsp;
There have also been unsubstantiated claims, despite Gurung’s denial, about his ‘ties’ to the Free Tibet movement, which has made the Chinese— as well as Nepalis— wary.&nbsp;
As Home Minister, Gurung cultivated an image of a tough but approachabe leader, overseeing a series of high-profile arrests of previous political leadership and business figures even as he posted photos of sleeping in a sofa in his office, and engaged with the public on the streets and on social media.&nbsp;
As it stands, the Home Ministry was a bone of contention between Shah and RSP Chair Rabi Lamichhane before it was awarded to Gurung, who is a close ally of PM Shah. Analysts had noted that with Gurung in charge, the Home Ministry would be a hook for Shah if Lamichhane, with his share of controversies, stepped out of line.&nbsp;
Following Gurung’s resignation, the Prime Minister’s secretariat has said that the PM would take charge of the portfolio for the time being. But it will be interesting to see if and how fresh negotiations for the Ministry unfold within RSP.&nbsp;
And with his supporter base largely intact, it remains to be seen how much of an impact this setback will have on Sudan Gurung’s political aspirations.&nbsp;

Home Minister Sudan Gurung resigns

Sudan Gurung is dancing. It is 2009. He has an emo fringe falling over one eye and is spinning on a polished floor. His dance shows dedication — moves that take years of bruised elbows to land. The clip is 16 years old, and had been sitting in the dead archives of YouTube and old Facebook pages, watched by almost nobody. This month <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@4gr4j/video/7621892206902725909">it has 1.9 million views</a>. Gurung became Home Minister on 27 March and resigned on Wednesday, barely a month into office. His<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@aayvik/video/7626069452177542408"> pre-political life had been put back into circulation</a> at industrial speed -- the b-boying, the DJ sets, and the YouTube video of him dancing in a music clip.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2026042202040_71df4d531423e7c941abde95fb8106346c70ab0afb71bbeb520cc570f14ba178.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="2026042202040_71df4d531423e7c941abde95fb8106346c70ab0afb71bbeb520cc570f14ba178" data-rendition-name="original" width="2300" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="When aura meets audit"> </figure>  The youth of Nepal, well-versed in snappy TikTok edits and aura compilations, turned the archive into a meme economy almost overnight. TikTok remixed the footage to trap beats. The comments settled on a nickname that crossed into everyday speech within days: 'Homie Minister'. <div class="embed-block"><blockquote class="tiktok-embed" cite="https://www.tiktok.com/@yalexthwreal/video/7622325255792512276" data-video-id="7622325255792512276" style="max-width: 605px;min-width: 325px;" > <section> <a target="_blank" title="@yalexthwreal" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@yalexthwreal?refer=embed">@yalexthwreal</a> <a title="sudangurung" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/sudangurung?refer=embed">#sudangurung</a> new home minister of Nepal😎 <a title="fyppppppppppppppppppppppp" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/fyppppppppppppppppppppppp?refer=embed">#fyppppppppppppppppppppppp</a> <a title="sudangrg" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/sudangrg?refer=embed">#sudangrg</a> <a title="home" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/home?refer=embed">#home</a> <a title="minister" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/minister?refer=embed">#minister</a> <a target="_blank" title="♬ original sound - •⪨н є α я т ❤н α ¢ к є я ⪩• - Music Universe 🎧" href="https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-•⪨н-є-α-я-т-❤н-α-¢-к-є-я-⪩•-7308733170064231170?refer=embed">♬ original sound - •⪨н є α я т ❤н α ¢ к є я ⪩• - Music Universe 🎧</a> </section> </blockquote> <script async src="https://www.tiktok.com/embed.js"></script></div> As Home Minister, Gurung was in charge of the Nepal Police, Armed Police Force, Department of Immigration, and the country's internal security apparatus. Calling him 'homie' collapsed the distance between that office and the Discord server where the movement that brought him into power had organised itself. What is harder to explain is why the nostalgic clips did the narrative work for Gurung's political standing right up until the moment the paperwork did not. A teenager on a dance floor in a Thamel club, filmed before smartphones had decent cameras, was functioning as political currency for a powerful home minister, while a share registry was quietly filling the other column. The footage was not an argument. Gurung was not doing anything in it that related to home affairs. He was just dancing. The comments compared him to <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@4gr4j/video/7621892206902725909">Korean film heroes</a>. A separate <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@tandavyt7/video/7622151050128018708">48,000-like edit</a> was captioned 'Our New Home Minister Aura'. The replies were full of people saying they got chills listening to him speak. Even after his resignation, most comments on his Facebook page were supportive, saying he had been punished for pursuing truth and justice.&nbsp; Political legitimacy in Nepal has been built out of many things over the last 70 years, but it has never been built out of this. The question was always: what happens when the job starts demanding things his style, boldness, and swag cannot provide. Political aura in Nepal used to be a slow harvest, now it isn't. B P Koirala spent eight years in prison under the Panchayat. He wrote fiction at Sundari Jal. The writing survived, the prison sentences survived, and that experience became the template for what a serious Nepali politician looked like: someone the state had tried to break and failed. Legitimacy was accumulated by having their lives taken away, and refusing to bend the knee. The old mechanics of legitimacy produced politicians who could be audited. The record was made of words, dates, votes, and years behind bars. A voter who wanted to know what a leader stood for read his writings. A journalist digging for inconsistency could find it. The system was slow, often corrupt, and frequently boring. But boring was part of the job description. A minister was supposed to be slightly dull — evidence that the person was doing the unglamorous work of reading files and sitting through committee meetings. Today, boring is a disqualification. The attention economy rewards velocity and visual charge, and a politician who cannot generate either does not exist in the feed, and that means does not exist at all. The legacy parties are still issuing press statements criticising the new guard in the grammar of paper trails and procedural failure. But the audience has stopped reading, users scroll for their next viral bite. Sudan Gurung, unlike the old parties, understood exactly which grammar the feed rewarded. On his first evening as Home Minister, he posted a photo of himself sleeping on a sofa inside the ministry. Caption: creation cannot be greater than the creator, government is not above the people. The image travelled further in 12 hours than any ministerial press release has ever done.&nbsp; A minister napping on a sofa, phone-shot, zero production, read by the public as evidence of a minister who had skipped the motorcade and got straight to work. Gurung used Facebook to announce the names of former ministers and businessmen he intended to arrest. The feed was used to pre-announce state security action.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260422010456_2fa1918e1dd031d01f38b4001ee306d9414073cec0b795fa43a75cb5a8deb8c7.png" data-media-id="editor_6" data-image-id="20260422010456_2fa1918e1dd031d01f38b4001ee306d9414073cec0b795fa43a75cb5a8deb8c7" data-rendition-name="original" width="926" height="868" loading="lazy" alt="When aura meets audit"> </figure>  INFLUENTIAL INFLUENCER This is not how the Ministry of Home Affairs has ever operated. It is how a YouTuber releases a series. Sudan Gurung was a political content creator. As home minister, he was an influential influencer kinetically doing something in the visual medium. Much like Prime Minister Balendra Shah's sunglasses, Gurung's aura, authenticity and swag were a brand asset, instantly recognisable at thumbnail size. Balen's rap career supplies a pre-political archive that authenticates him the same way Gurung's DJ sets and b-boying clips authenticated him. The aesthetic is doing the work a manifesto used to do. The work is authenticity, and the strategy is auramaxxing. The emo fringe predates the ministry. The DJ sets predate Hami Nepal. The b-boying predates the earthquake, the NGO, the September uprising, the interim cabinet, all of it. Whatever Gurung is now, he was already that person before the office existed. This was the real spectacle of the Homie Minister: authenticity. Nepal's youth have grown up watching heavily-polished, talking-point ministers speak in a language aimed at nobody in particular. But that grainy archival clip of the Home Minister from 2009 was honest.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260422010456_5d6dff3a09e8b7e77dc60c3aa567c9e02b6bd5f90f94e20737ec05cc9a09023b.jpg" data-media-id="editor_7" data-image-id="20260422010456_5d6dff3a09e8b7e77dc60c3aa567c9e02b6bd5f90f94e20737ec05cc9a09023b" data-rendition-name="original" width="1800" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="When aura meets audit NT"> </figure>  The effect transcended GenZ. <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@ektapokharel/video/7623242573481561365">A TikTok trend</a> captioned NOT ONLY OUR HOME MINISTER, WE ARE ALSO FROM THAT ERA <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@sonykhadka/video/7624106790266948872">has millennials posting their own</a> archive photos from the same period, aligning themselves with Gurung's pre-political aesthetic. The aura did <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@_thakuri/video/7623397397556645141">cross-generational work</a>. It was a shared legibility, spanning at least 15 years of Nepali youth culture, with the Home Minister standing at its centre.&nbsp; The traditional politician's entire adult life is a performance of identity. Every photograph is lit for the media, every statement is vetted. The persona is the product, and the product has been in development for 30 years. This makes the old guard legible but suspect in the attention economy. A generation raised on authenticity-as-currency reads the decades of careful performance as evidence of something to hide. The polish is the problem. The nostalgic Sudan Gurung party clips inverted this. The polish was absent. The footage could not be performance aimed at the viewer, because the viewer did not exist in 2009 and neither did the political stakes. The clip was therefore read as real, in a way a press conference can never be. It was just a kid dancing, and he happened to grow up to be the Home Minister. But Sudan Gurung's job was never to go viral. The Ministry of Home Affairs requires the person running it to file a complete asset declaration and to avoid holding financial interests in crony entities.&nbsp; None of that work is content. A correctly filed asset declaration does not get remixed into a trap beat. A functioning immigration database is not a TikTok. The paperwork that constitutes actual governance is structurally boring in exactly the way the old parties are structurally boring, and for the same reason. It is the slow, procedural, checkable apparatus that the old system was built to produce and that the new system has not yet learned to replace. And it is painstaking follow-the-money paper trail investigative journalists in the legacy media who uncovered the evidence. You cannot auramaxx your way out of a share registry. You cannot post your way past a conflict-of-interest statute. No amount of fire outfits and wild DJ transitions does anything for you when a journalist pulls the initial shareholder list of Star Micro Insurance and finds your name at number 49, with Rs2.5 million in shares alongside investors linked to Deepak Bhatta and Sulav Agrawal — two men currently at the centre of a Rs 3.7 billion money laundering investigation. <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@blox.drop/video/7622173520981658900">Auramaxxing was engineered</a> for the mechanics of reaching office. It is the reason Sudan Gurung became Home Minister and Gagan Thapa did not. The question that had not yet been tested, until this week, was whether the same weapon works when the terrain changes. The terrain does change when you assume power. This week, the answer arrived. TWO CLOCKS Two clocks had been running, and they did not sync. The first clock was built for auramaxxing. A clip posted at eight in the morning peaked by noon. A sofa photo was remixed before the minister had left the building. The feedback loop is fast and legible, and a politician playing this clock gets real-time data on what to post next. The old guard never learned to read it, which is a large part of why they lost the election. The second clock was the one the ministry actually runs on. It measures in quarters, court calendars, and the slow grind of investigation files moving between offices. A share registry takes weeks to pull. A money-laundering case moves at the speed of the prosecutor's office, which is to say, it often does not appear to move at all, until one morning it does. The legacy mass media is fed leaks, and the second clock does not care whether the minister is currently trending. The two clocks collided this week, and the second clock got there first. Faster than anyone expected. The first clock put Gurung in the Home Ministry in weeks. The second clock put him out of it in less than a month. On Sunday evening, Diyopost and Janaastha published documents showing Gurung as a founding shareholder in Star Micro Insurance and Liberty Micro Life — companies licensed by the Nepal Insurance Authority in 2022 following what reporting identified as political lobbying by Bhatta and Agrawal. A photograph also surfaced of Hami Nepal, the NGO Gurung chairs, honouring Bhatta as a donor on 21 December 2021. Gurung's first response was auramaxxed. A Monday Facebook post distinguishing ‘rumours’ from ‘facts’, insisting the shares were disclosed within his broader Rs20 million securities portfolio, promising to cooperate with any investigation. "Allegations and truth are not the same thing," he wrote. "Decisions should be based on evidence, not sentiment." It was a coherent clip, but it did not stop the clock. By Wednesday, Prime Minister Balendra Shah had sought written clarification. Leaders within the RSP itself were calling for his resignation. The opposition Nepali Congress had framed the question as one of democratic transparency.&nbsp; Gurung resigned, posting his decision to Facebook as he did everything else. Ethics, he wrote, hold more weight than any position. There is no power greater than public trust. He ended in English, invoking ‘my country … the respect of our security forces … the youths of Nepal’. Even the exit was content. And this is the asymmetry the office exposed. A politician whose legitimacy is built on fast 30 second videos is structurally exposed to a process that runs slower than the news cycle, because the archive of aesthetic proof was not engineered to answer documentary evidence.&nbsp; It was engineered to displace the demand for documentary evidence in the first place. When that demand returns, as it always does once a politician takes office, the digital archive keeps performing, but the documents keep getting uncovered. And the two tracks do not communicate. The old guard knew this clock because they had no other clock to know. What they lost in charisma they gained in durability: a politician built over 20 years of parliamentary record is harder to dislodge with a single document because they have already survived thousands of documents. The new guard has not been stress-tested against its own paper trail. Sudan Gurung has now been tested, and the test is over, and the template has been written in his exit rather than his survival.&nbsp; A politician can enter office on the strength of a dance clip, and the same class of evidence — share registries, company filings, founding-shareholder lists at number 49 — that would have ended the career of a politician in a previous era of Nepali politics has ended his. The second clock got there. The feed did not save him. Or not entirely. Because the resignation itself is now in the feed. The Facebook post. The 46 brothers and sisters. The epic sign-off. Within hours of stepping down, Gurung had already re-enrolled his exit into the same register that put him in office. The clip of the Home Minister dancing in 2009 is still in circulation. The sofa photo still reads as sincerity. The investigation into the micro-insurance shares will move at the speed of Nepal's prosecutor's office, which is to say, at a speed the feed has long since outrun. The movement that installed Gurung in the name of ending elite capture has had its answer about whether its own hero is subject to the same audit it demanded of everyone else. He walked — or was walked — before the audit ran its course. The resignation was framed as moral choice rather than forced exit, and the framing is already winning. Whether that framing holds is the next test. Auramaxxing, it turns out, is a weapon that works in one direction only: it got him the job, and when the documents arrived, it did not save him. But it may yet save the person. These are not the same thing. If the technique is wounded, it is not yet dead. The next Nepali politician with a pre-political archive and a phone is watching how Gurung exits, not just how he entered. And the answer is: you exit the same way you entered: on Facebook. In your own voice. Before anyone else writes the caption. Whether he comes back is the thing to watch. Whether the technique does is already decided. &nbsp; &nbsp;

When Aura meets Audit

Just three weeks in, Prime Minister Balendra Shah has already shed two ministers, and is having to contend with the economic fallout of the West Asia war plus the global order that it has upended.&nbsp;
The new dispensation in Nepal has aroused interest in New Delhi, Beijing as well as Washington. The ouster of Home Minister Sudan Gurung, whose first act in office was to arrest former prime minister K P Oli, has foreign policy wonks scratching their heads.
The US sent Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Samir Paul Kapur on a special mission to figure out what is happening in Kathmandu. In town at the same time was Cao Jing, Deputy Director General of the Asian Affairs Department of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. And Prime Minister Shah is preparing for an official visit to India.
For the Americans, it is mostly about containing China and looking after the welfare of Tibetan refugees, while pushing its own MCC Compact and State Partnership Program (SSP). Beijing is mindful of the post-Dalai Lama era, and does not want instability in Nepal to encourage free-Tibet activities. India lately seems more wary of American activity in what it considers its backyard.
The Chinese appear relieved to see Sudan Gurung go. Only last week, Ambassador Zhang Maoming met Gurung during which he raised the issue of Tibetan and Taiwanese activities in Nepal, seeking firm commitment that Kathmandu would not harbour activities hostile to Beijing.
“Geographically we are close to Tibet and not to the Mainland, so China remains suspicious of us, especially after the TOB and free-Tibet components that emerged from the GenZ protests,” says geopolitical analyst Indra Adhikari.
Kapur, for his part, met RSP Chair Rabi Lamichhane, Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle and Foreign Minister Shishir Khanal. Although investment and infrastructure was on the agenda, the main issue seems to have been about Tibetan refugees. In nearly parallel meetings with ministers, Cao Jing warned Nepal not to be too cosy with the Americans.
For Indian academic and Nepal watcher Sukh Deo Muni, all this harks back to American activity in Nepal during the height of the Cold War. He tweeted: ‘US senior diplomat Paul Kapur's statement in Kathmandu must be understood carefully in New Delhi. He said the US does not want China or any other country to dominate Nepal.’&nbsp;
‘Any other country’ could be a pointed reference to India, and what this means is that Nepal may now have to navigate even more carefully a tri-polar world order reshaped by the West Asia war.&nbsp;
Nepali journalist based in New Delhi Akanshya Shah agrees that the United States may not be seeing Nepal through the Indian lens anymore, while New Delhi does not want heightened US activity in what it considers its sphere of influence. All this is further complicated by recent frostiness in Washington-New Delhi ties.
“New Delhi doesn’t have that familiarity factor it used to with old leadership in Nepal, but it is curious about what the young Balen Shah will do and what kind of relation he will pursue with India,” she adds. “Certain decisions of the Balen government such as ending VIP culture and delivering passport at homes have hugely resonated with the Indian people, he has in some ways become a role model among the youth in India as well.”
India has invited Prime Minister Shah for an official state visit, which will be his first foreign trip as per tradition. Shah graduated in structural engineering from a college in Bengaluru, and knows India well. Shah has injected religious elements into his public exposure as prime minister and this could help project Nepal’s ‘soft power’ in dealing with India.
But he has also been a nationalist on the Limpiyadhura map dispute, and there are other thorny issues like air connectivity, river projects and power exports that need to be ironed out.&nbsp;
Sukh Deo Muni warns that the old Indian diplomatic approach based on religio-cultural stakeholders in Kathmandu may not work anymore. He wrote: ‘India's Modi government must prepare itself well to deal with new Nepalese leadership and their empowered support base, which is self-confident, highly nationalist, aspirant and impatient.’
The RSP’s 22-page National Commitment document said Nepal should abandon its historical ‘buffer state’ identity to serve as a ‘vibrant bridge’ between regional and global powers. Much of this debate is theoretical, and there is much navel-gazing that distracts from regional realpolitik.&nbsp;
“Whether we are a buffer state or a vibrant bridge, in today’s heightened geopolitical scenario we have to have good relations with good neighbours,” explains Akanshya Shah. “What is of paramount importance is that our ties are based on the aspirations of the young generation, so that they are engaged.”
Indra Adhikari goes as far as to say that the concepts of “buffer state” and “vibrant bridge” have both failed and Nepal is neither. “We have had zero roles in mediating or de-escalating the tensions between India and China to call ourselves a buffer state. As a vibrant bridge, we cannot facilitate trade of the two countries. The new government should have researched and consulted more before proposing the same outdated and failed foreign policy concepts.”&nbsp;
What will be much more important for Prime Minister Shah is to continue Nepal’s traditional policy of ‘equidistance’ and convince his interlocutors that it is not an anti-Indian stance.&nbsp;
“At a time when there is increased interest of big powers in Nepal, we need to do a bit of our own homework for the systemic reforms we want,” says Akanshya Shah. “As for India, we first need to clearly define what we want on connectivity, energy and culture. But most importantly, we have to capitalise on the goodwill of India which we haven’t been able to in the past.”
Adds Indra Adhikari: “When it comes to fundamental aspects of foreign policy that ensures and enhances the well being of our citizens, national parties should all have one unified voice that doesn’t change when the government does. Only then the future generations can own it.”

Love thy neighbours (and America)

Prime Minister Balendra Shah sought written clarification from Home Minister Sudan Gurung following news of his investment in two companies linked to controversial Nepali business figures Sulav Agrawal and Deepak Bhatt, who are currently at the centre of a Rs3.7 billion money laundering investigation.
Home Minister Gurung's secretariat said that it has responded to the PM and submitted a written explanation. This comes after Home Minister Sudan Gurung issued a public clarification about the new developments regarding his investments on Monday.&nbsp;
Gurung is listed as a founding shareholder of two micro-insurance companies Star Micro Insurance and Liberty Micro Life, having acquired shares amounting to Rs2.5 million. The two companies are said to have been issued their licence by the Nepal Insurance Authority at the behest of Bhatt and Agrawal. Family members and close aides of both Bhatt and Agrawal have stakes in the two companies.&nbsp;
Bhatt, chairman of Infinity Holdings, is a power broker accused of using his political connections to secure and manipulate public procurement contracts, influence policy changes ass well as leadership appointments to regulatory institutions including the Securities Board of Nepal and Nepal Insurance Authority.&nbsp;
Meanwhile, Shanker Group vice-chair Sulav Agrawal was also arrested earlier this month as part of a broader money laundering probe as well as an investigation into the group’s finances. Agrawal was previously arrested during the Covid-19 pandemic after he was found selling &nbsp;67 infrared thermometers from a vehicle with diplomatic credentials. At the time, Bhatt is said to have used his connections to facilitate Agrawal’s release.&nbsp;
Critics have raised concerns the lack of detailed disclosures on Gurung’s part about investments tied to the very figures that his Home Ministry is in charge of investigating. There are also questions as to the source of his investment, which Gurung said in his clarification were raised through loans.
In his clarification, Gurung denied concealing his investments, saying that his shares in the two companies are part of in his over Rs20 million portfolio included in his asset disclosure and insisting the misunderstanding is because of how the shares have been categorised. &nbsp;
On his name and portfolio being associated with controversial figures, he responded, ‘There are hundreds to thousands of shareholders in a company. Buying shares does not constitute a partnership with anyone.’&nbsp;
He continued: ‘If that is the basis, then everyone with investments in those companies must be held accountable, which is not fair. Investments in the companies include those from media houses and banks. Are they all guilty?’
Leaders within the RSP have called for internal investigation into Sudan Gurung, to maintain the party’s platform of clean governance and transparency.&nbsp;
This comes after the sacking of Labour Minister Dipak Sah earlier this month after the RSP found him to be in breach of the party code of conduct following the reappointment of his wife to the Health insurance board. Sah was not given the opportunity for clarification prior to his departure.&nbsp;
Critics have said that the party is reverting to the patronage-driven politics of previous leadership following the appointment of figures close to RSP leadership in various key positions.
Many influential business owners elected to the House with direct stakes in the business, finance, tourism, and infrastructure sectors sit in Parliamentary Committees that would directly benefit their interests. &nbsp;
On Monday, RSP appointed Bhupdev Shah, who previously was a part of Balen Shah’s secretariat during his tenure as Kathmandu Mayor, as the party’s general secretary. Some have questioned the party’s decision to appoint Shah without going through an election process in its upcoming general convention.&nbsp;
Shah’s appointment comes as there is increased public attention over members of the Prime Minister’s inner circle being appointed to key advisory positions as well as to head governance reform committees.

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