Cholera-like disease spreads in Zabul, killing 2 people

QALAT (Pajhwok): Dozens of people in two districts of southern Zabul province have been infected with a cholera-like disease and so far two individuals have lost their lives to the disease.

Dr Abdul Hakim Hakimi, director of Public Health Department, told Pajhwok Afghan News that 80 people in Sewri and 60 in Daichopan districts have contracted the disease similar to cholera.

He said immediately after the spread of the disease, mobile health teams were dispatched to the two districts and they had started treatment of those infected.

According to him, diarrhea and vomiting are the acute symptoms of the disease.

Hakimi said that blood samples had been taken from the patients in order to find out what kind of illnesses was this.

According to Hakimi, at least two individuals have lost their lives to the disease in Daichopan district.

However, patients shifted from the two districts to the provincial hospital were in critical condition.

Hakimi informed this was the second time that such a disease was spreading in a number of districts of Zabul.

In order to prevent the spread of the disease, he added, they had tasked five mobile health teams containing 50 doctors in Qalat City, Shah Joy and Shahr-i-Safa districts.

He added the mobile teams had enough medicines and they provided treatment to such patients in the earliest possible.

He said in the last one month, more than 2,000 people contracted this disease and they were provided with timely treatment.

Hakimi said that findings showed that such disease were water-borne and spread through contaminated food and water.

Governor Sulaiman Agha Baheer ,who traveled to Seuri district in order to watch the patients, told Pajhwok that the cholera-like disease was spreading in some districts and they had measures to control the outbreak.

He added efforts were underway to open health centers with the help of international organizations and also to establish potable water networks.

Raz Mohammad, a resident of the Sewri district, who brought his ailing child to the health center, told Pajhwok that his child suddenly got infected with diarrhea and started vomiting and he took him to the clinic for treatment.

Atiqullah, a resident of Daichopan district, whose father was infected with the disease, told Pajhwok from one hand the weather was warm and on the other there was no clean drinking water which caused many infections.

Dr. Mohammad Dawood Majeedi, director of Zabul provincial hospital, told Pajhwok that chlorine should be added to wells to prevent the spread of the disease.

He said the disease had symptoms of severe diarrhea, dizziness and fever which if not treated in time, could prove fatal.

But he said the treatment of this disease was easy with salt and hydration.

He emphasized that in order to prevent the disease from spreading, it was necessary for people to have access to clean drinking water and toilets and to take steps to remove contaminated water.

sa/ma

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