HYDERABAD: Khairpur district has emerged as a hotspot of coronavirus patients in Sindh after Karachi with sudden emergence of 334 positive cases of the virus, raising a bitter political controversy over authenticity of PCR tests carried out by the government-run laboratories.

This has compelled Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah to order retesting of all those 265 persons who were tested positive in Pir Jo Goth, hometown of Pir Pagara, spiritual head of Hur Jamaat and chief of the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA). The Pir’s son also tested positive among them.

Pir Jo Goth is taluka headquarter of Kingri though it looks like a village from its very name. Goth also has a separate municipal committee that makes it a perfect urban centre. Historic Khairpur district — home to date palm production — is also home city of Syed Qaim Ali Shah, a three-time elected Sindh CM. Khairpur is one of those Sindh’s districts that luckily has two tertiary-level hospitals.

The Pir’s son and GDA’s Sindh Assembly member from Khairpur tested positive during bulk sampling of suspected patients in the first week of May in the backdrop of the death of a woman, a resident of Dinnal Shah Mohallah.

In the first batch, 316 samples were collected and analysed in Diagnostic and Research Laboratory (DRL) of Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS) Hyderabad and of them 250 were found positive.

Another 50 samples were analysed in Khairpur’s Gambat Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS) in the second batch and 15 were found positive, taking total number of active patients in Pir Jo Goth to 265 in one go.

What necessitated the administration and health authorities for sampling of 300 persons en bloc was the positive tests of 10 persons, out of 30, whose tests were done after a woman of the Memon community died in Dinnal Shah Mohallah of Pir Jo Goth on May 2 and another 14 tested positive in 96 samples collected. “All 265 persons were isolated as per government advisory,” said Khairpur Deputy Commissioner Naeem Sandhu.

The late woman’s test was not done as her family claimed she did not have any symptoms and according to her husband she was just hypertensive. She was laid to rest as per rituals after her funeral prayers were offered at the shrine of Roz-i-Dhani, Pir Jo Goth.

After her death, her husband, son and daughter and a woman who administered cannula to her were tested positive as her contacts. That had raised alarm bells in the district. Word, in the meantime, also spread in Pir Jo Goth that the woman, who gave funerary bath to the victim, had been given chloroquine tablet by the deceased’s family. She disclosed this fact to her husband, prompting administration to go for testing of around 250 persons.

“We were flooded with calls from people [of Pir Jo Goth] that a positive patient has died and she has been buried without compliance of standard operating procedures (SOPs). That’s how we started sampling of people,” said District Health Officer Khairpur, Dr Hussain Abro.

The woman’s husband also rejected claims that his wife travelled from and to Hyderabad. “I, my son and daughter tested positive after her death. Now we are home isolated,” he said. His nephew, an assistant professor of Mehran University’s Khairpur chapter, said: “I myself tested negative although I was in close contact with her. Our family is being stigmatised by locals for some reasons,” he insisted.

The GDA MPA volunteered for his sample among 250 persons when it was done by the district administration. His second test, according to one Sindh government officer, was done in Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS), again a public sector laboratory. It turned out be negative. “This second test report kicked off a political controversy to question veracity of two test reports of laboratories,” he said.

“It’s too difficult a thing to explain variation in lab reports for it is purely an academic point. When did a person contract contagion or when the first test was done matters the most. Negative PCR test in a symptomatic patient doesn’t rule out virus’ presence. It requires CT scan. We can’t explain it to everyone,” said a LUMHS faculty member.

After having been tested positive, the MPA had travelled to Karachi with his family members. He is still in Karachi. When this correspondent contacted him, he entertained question but dropped phone call without answering it. He is said to be in home isolation.

“The CM has now ordered re-tests of all those 250 people of Pir Jo Goth,” said an official. On May 11, 50 samples were collected and another 150 were scheduled for Tuesday for retest. “These samples will be analysed in Karachi’s private laboratory now,” he added.

PPP MNA Nafisa Shah regrets the political controversy in the backdrop of Pir Jo Goth episode. “It is uncalled for in these challenging conditions,” she remarked and said that doctors, the district administration and health staff have been doing tremendous job almost round the clock. “They need to be backed up” Shah said.

She believed that now the retesting of all those 250 people would serve the purpose hopefully. “Variation is said to be there in lab reports to the extent of 25pc to 30pc. We need to understand that,” she added.

Khairpur district now has 334 active patients and overall tally of the district’s positive patients is said to be 490, including men from Tableeghi Jamaat. Out of total 166 positive cases reported there, 153 Jamaat men have been cured and repatriated to their home districts while 13 are still kept in isolation.

GDA’s MPA Nusrat Abbasi reacts sharply. “Why the Dow University lab charged from Pir’s son if it is a government lab and why didn’t those tested positive were shifted to isolation facility?” she asked. She said the Sindh government refused kits provided by the federal government. “Obviously, then, eyebrows will be raised over lab results.”

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2020