KARACHI, July 1: Panic gripped on Tuesday the locality called Mominabad, in Landhi Town, when 19 people fell ill allegedly after using contaminated water. Some people thought that a full-blown epidemic had struck.

The patients were shifted to the SESSI hospital in Landhi, where 17 were admitted. The rest of the patients were referred to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre.

According to the Sessi hospital’s Dr Javed Ujjan, the patients did not suffer from gastro-enteritis or any water-borne disease but from simple food poisoning. They said the condition of all the patients was stable.

He added that about half the patients belonged to one family, indicating that the case was an isolated one. In response to a question, he claimed that in all four or five families were involved.

Dr Ujjan said the patients did have diarrhoea-like symptoms. But on examination, it was revealed that they were suffering from food poisoning.

Dr Sikander Iqbal of the JPMC, deputed to the SESSI hospital, told Dawn that diarrhoea cases occurred quite commonly in June and July.

“This also seems to be a simple case of diarrhoea or food poisoning.”

The residents of Mominabad, that is UC-4 of Landhi Town, did not agree with the two doctors’ contention.

Talking to Dawn in the hospital Shamsher, the head of the family 10 of whose members had to be hospitalized, said the problem arose when water supplied by the municipality was consumed. This showed that they suffered from a water-borne disease.

“You see, people have been making announcements from mosques that water supplied in pipes should not be used in view of an outbreak in Muslimabad. That’s why we did not use pipe water for at least four days.

“But last night and early this morning, we started using the piped water. As a result our children and women fell sick.”

The Nazim of UC-4, Waheed Zaman, and Naib Nazim, M. Akram, expressed similar views. They claimed that at least 10 families had been affected by the supply of poor quality water to the community.

The water and sanitation department’s executive engineer — Shabbir Ahmed — said people had simply panicked. “When they saw some children and women vomiting and having loose motions, the residents thought that an epidemic had struck,” he said.

Discussing the outbreak in Muslimabad, he said tests conducted by the staff of his department had revealed that the pipe carrying water to the Muslimabad area was perfectly okay.

Meanwhile, a statement issued by the health department had this to say about the Mominabad case: “In an incident in Landhi today, some 12 people suffered from sickness after taking food and some of them had to be given medical attention.

“They had apparently been victim of food poisoning. Some vested interests had spread rumours that the problem was caused by drinking of contaminated water.”