The outbreak of the various deadly diseases like gastro, diarrhoea, malaria, dengue fever and other viral infections on Wednesday claimed the lives of at least 28 people in Dadu, Thatta, Larkana, Jamshoro, Shaheed Benazirabad, Khairpur, Ghotki, Sukkur, Larkana, Naushahro Feroze and other districts of Sindh.
With the deaths of 28 people reported on Wednesday, the toll, according to the unofficial reports, crossed the 700 mark since the diseases broke out in the flood-hit areas of the province.
According to reports pouring in from Dadu, Larkana, Jamshoro, Shaheed Benazirabad, Khairpur, Ghotki, Thatta, Sujawal, Shikarpur, Mirpur Khas, Badin, and other districts, thousands living under open skies are suffering from various complications due to unhygienic conditions and consumption of highly contaminated water.
In Juman Bukero and Arbab Malook, the outbreak of cerebral malaria claimed the lives of 15 villagers, including eight members of the same family.
Health officials under the supervision of the district health officer (DHO) reached the affected villages and directed establishing a medical camp for the treatment of ailing villagers. The DHO confirming the death of 15 villages after the deadly virus broke out, and held the local doctors responsible for not paying heed towards the plight of residents.
He also confirmed that another 65 people were suffering from the same deadly type of malaria.
The people staged demonstrations in a number of towns to register their protest against the callous and criminal attitude of the authorities towards their plight. They lamented that they had been left at the mercy of swarms of mosquitos and demanded that the government functionaries provide them with food items and medicines. The people clashed with officials who tried to force the flood victims out of relief camps established in school buildings in Larkana, Dadu and some other districts after high-ups of Sindh government had directed the DCs on Tuesday to get school buildings vacated from flood victims.
Meanwhile, according to health officials, another 78,000 patients showed up at health camps in the flood-hit areas of Sindh during the past 24 hours, while six people died of gastroenteritis and other illnesses.
According to the provincial health department, two died of gastroenteritis, two of pyrexia of unknown origin (PUO) – a condition in which a person has a temperature accompanied by more than three weeks of illness – and one each of myocardial infarction and cardiopulmonary arrest.
