As many as 157 inmates languishing in Ilam jail have fallen sick at once. The jailbirds have witnessed different health complications for the past few days. It has aggravated the problem when the disease turned to be an epidemic with its spread from one to another. Pradeep Shrestha, in-charge of the jail, informed that the inmates are suffering from headache, chest pain, vomiting and fever. As big number of inmates have fallen sick it has become tough to provide them with treatment. The prison itself is congested so it has also troubled in delivering treatment service”, he added. With many inmates fallen sick at once, a team of doctors from Ilam Hospital was brought to provide treatment services to the patients. As the jail has accommodated more than double the capacity arrangement for treatment service has become a tough job, Shrestha added. “Number of patients was 78 on Saturday but it rose to 157 on Sunday”, he shared, adding that “It has been very difficult to protect other inmates from epidemic”. There are 260 jailbirds, including 237 male, 21 female and two children in the prison now. However the prison has the capacity to manage 100 male and 25 female. Only 11 employees are looking after the operation of the prison. Shrestha said office assistants are inadequate in number so it is difficult to provide service to the big number of inmates from the existing human resources. —