Kathmandu, July 2 -- In April this year, immunisation workers deployed from the Public Health Office, Dolpa travelled four days to reach Chharka Bhot, one of the highest permanent human settlements in the world, located in upper Dolpa.

They walked aroud 14 hours a day, from 6 o'clock in the morning to 8 in the evening, with vaccine carriers containing human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine doses, to reach the village, which sits at 4,350 metres.

"We did not have any other option except to walk," said Dr Abhiyan Gautam, chief of the Immunisation Section at the Family Welfare Division under the Department of Health Services. "Our health workers walked across barren alpine terrain and valleys, through snow-covered trails, and crossed the Bhola...