MANSEHRA: The Torghar district health department has dispatched mobile health teams to Mera Madakhel village to handle measles outbreak. The highly contagious disease has killed a boy and infected scores in the area.

“We have sent teams to the far-away village as parents are reluctant to vaccinate children against measles,” district health officer Dr Naeem Awan told reporters here on Wednesday.

He regretted that the district didn’t have tertiary healthcare centre or civil hospital.

“We have been managing health affairs of the entire district with the help of four medical officers,” he said. The DHO regretted the ransacking of the Judbah Basic Health Unit and torture of staff members by a group of people, who, he claimed, had brought a boy there dead. He said the intervention of assistant commissioner Mohammad Saleem and ASP Shamsur Rehman pacified the mob. “We have transferred a medical technician to defuse tensions,” he said.

The DHO said he was in contact with the provincial health department for measures to address the shortage of doctors and other technical staff at BHUs in the district.

“Our entire district has 10 sanctioned posts of medical officers but four of them have long been lying vacant. However, we continue to provide the best possible healthcare to people despite this understaffing,” he said.

CASES RESOLVED: The dispute resolution council of Oghi tehsil has settled 90 percent of the cases filed with it during the first year of its operation.

“We received a total of 166 complaints since our formation in July last year and managed the out-of-court settlement of 148 of them and thus, giving the people a major relief,” general secretary of the council Qazi Khalid told reporters on Wednesday.

Mr Khalid, who released the annual report of the Oghi DRC, said settling disputes out of court was need of the hour.

“The DRC has reduced the court’s burden by settling cases and if its operation becomes more effective, the number of such settled cases will grow significantly,” he said.

Mr Khalid said of the cases settled by the council, 21 were about property, 10 about enmity and 15 about money.

Published in Dawn, September 13th, 2018