CHITRAL: A team of doctors from Peshawar is in Lower Chitral to monitor typhoid cases reported from different areas such as parts of Kalash valleys and Ayun.
The outbreak of typhoid was reported a few days back from Rumbur in Kalash valley and adjacent Attani village of Ayun after which the district administration had sent teams to the affected areas.
A response team of doctors sent from the Directorate of Health Services Peshawar has also arrived. The team members led by provincial servellance officer Dr Muhammad Gul Sartaj and Dr Amir Bakhtiar are monitoring the patients in the affected areas.
The doctors today met Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Imran Khan and discussed details about their activities.
The DC on the occasion directed the Public Health Department and the TMA to immediately restore water supply lines in Ayun and carry out chloronization of water tanks in the area.
A statement issued by the office of the deputy commissioner stated that so far only six typhoid cases had been reported and the situation was under control.
The incidence of Extensive Drug Resistance (XDR) typhoid in Kalash valley of Rumbur and its adjoining Atani and Ayun villages seems to have evaded the interest and attention of the health department officials both at the local and provincial levels.
The outbreak of XDR typhoid fever was feared in Rumbur valley about two weeks ago when a patient was found to offer resistance to a series of antibiotics, and more patients also poured in from the valley into the District Headquarters Hospital.
Patients also came from Atani and Ayun villages, which are supplied drinking water from Rumbur, making it clear the waterborne disease had spread to the downstream localities.
After the blood culture test of some patients came out positive for XDR typhoid, the Lower Chitral district health officer reported the matter to the director general health on March 22, who deployed a rapid response team of four doctors.