'Hygiene is the first priority': Nepal looks to clean up its act on healthcare

In a country where dirty water and poor sanitation jeopardise the lives of millions, moves are afoot to improve health facilities

It was midnight when Kalpana and Rohit Agri had to take their three-day-old daughter, Kritima, to Bardiya hospital in western Nepal. She was listless and, despite the antibiotics she'd been prescribed, had developed a high fever. Hearing her struggling to breathe, they woke a neighbour to take them.

Kritima was admitted with life-threatening neonatal sepsis, probably an infection she had picked up in the hospital where she was born.