Kathmandu, June 17 -- Janak Khatiwada, a resident of Galchhi Rural Municipality-3, in Dhading reached various places of Bhaktapur, Lalitpur, and Kathmandu on Tuesday seeking a single dose of cisplatin, a platinum-based chemotherapy drug needed for the treatment of his wife struggling with liver cancer.

He visited suppliers at Bhaktapur Cancer Hospital, and in Kupandole, Jawalakhel and Sanepa of Lalitpur, and Sundhara, Teku, Tripureshwar and Kalimati of Kathmandu to plead for cisplatin but returned without the medicine.

"I woke up at 5 am and went from one hospital to another and to the addresses of suppliers in the hope of finding a single dose of cisplatin, but I couldn't get it anywhere," said Khatiwada. "I have neither been able to f...