DADU: Two children died of gastroenteritis and 50 others contracted the waterborne disease in Band Manchhar village near Manchhar Lake, Sehwan taluka, on Wednesday.

Shahnawaz Mallah said that he brought his two-year-old son Irfan to a government hospital in Bhan Syedabad town after he contracted the gastro but he died on the way. Three-month-old Rehan Mallah of the same village also died of gastro, he said.

He said that doctors informed him that he had brought his son dead. If the administration did not pay serious attention to their plight more children would die, he warned.

Moula Bux Mallah, a village elder, said that 50 more children and some women were also infected with the disease in the village where a dispensary had been working since 1994 without any medical officer, lady health worker, dispenser and medicines.

He said that if medical camps had been established in the village earlier, the children would not have died. About 30 to 40 patients each in the villages of Girkano, Haji Malook Mallah, Gulshan Mallah, Khairuddin Mallah, Abdul Karim Mallah, Hoot Khan, Khan Mohammad, Rasool Bux Rodhanani, Dost Mohammad Rodhnani, Ibrahim Rodhnani, Qadir Bux Mallah and Zero Point suffered from gastroenteritis, skin and waterborne diseases, he said.

The villagers complained that despite deaths of children and breakout of diseases, no senior officer of the health department and district administration had so far visited the village to assess the situation.

Jamshoro DHO Dr Vinod Kumar confirmed the children’s death from gastroenteritis and said that a medical camp had been established in the village by PPHI and health department.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2022