18 April 2005	Monday	08 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1426

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LARKANA, April 17: An inquiry committee constituted to look into causes of the recent outbreak of an abdominal disease, which claimed lives of six villagers in the Warah taluka’s Kachho area, completed its report on Saturday. However, Chandka Medical College Hospital medical superintendent Dr Syed Mehboob Shah, who heads the committee, told Dawn that responsibility could be fixed only after the chemical analysis report of water samples taken from the area was received. But, he added, it had been established that suspended Warah Taluka Hospital medical superintendent Dr Farid Khuhawar was not equal to the task.

When villagers were taken to the taluka hospital after consuming poisonous water, no doctor, even the medical superintendent, was on duty and the victims had to go to private clinics.

Dr Shah said that according to the duty roster, no doctor had been assigned duty in the night shift for six months at the hospital.

He said emergency kits and medicines were also not available at the hospital when the villagers were taken there.

The report recommended establishment of a dispensary in the Hamal town to meet any eventuality. It called for installing tube-wells in the area to provide sweet water to people. It also proposed construction of a four-kilometre road connecting Kachho with Warah to facilitate people in case of emergency.

The report has been handed over to the EDO, health, Dr Noor Ahmad Khoso, who will submit it to the director-general, health, Sindh, Dr Hadi Bakhsh Jatoi, on Monday.

Meanwhile, three new cases of gastroenteritis from the Khadim Marfani village were reported at the CMCH.

The patients – four-year-old Hazoor Ahmad Marfani, eight-month-old Mariam and three-year-old Samina – were shifted to the CMC Children Hospital after first aid.

Two patients, Zameer Hussain Gadhi, 7, and Asghar Gadhi, 4, from the Mirzapur village were also brought to a medical camp in the Gaji Bakhsh Chandio village.

A two-member team of Unicef also arrived from Karachi here on Saturday along with medicines used to lessen drinking water hardness, said Mohammad Yasin Shar, focal person of Unicef for Larkana.