Nepal, Oct. 12 -- At Benighat, a mother takes a long detour along damaged roads carrying a child with high fever. The bridge connecting her village to the community health post was swept away in the 26 August flood.

Health workers at the hospital use a room heater because the infant radiant warmer is no longer functioning. Across the Trisuli, a woman in labour has to wait to sit in a precarious cable basket to be pulled across the debris-strewn river.

Nearly six weeks after the castastrophic flood, and 80km downstream from where the mountain fell, the immediate emergency may have passed for the survivors, but there is now a silent health crisis.

The damaged roads and missing bridges have cut off access to health centres even to famili...