CHITRAL: After Laspur valley, the contagious disease of chickenpox has spread to two more villages Brep in Yarkhoon valley and Booni town in Upper Chitral while four more children have shown the symptoms of the illness in Harchin village of Laspur.

The district coordinator of expanded programme on immunisation (EPI), Dr Wali Khan, told Dawn that during his visit to Brep village for awareness session about chickenpox a day ago, he found two students of two different schools to have contracted chickenpox.

He said that a 35-year-old man was also suffering from chickenpox. He belonged to the affected village of Harchin from where he had recently returned to work in Brep as labourer in a building site and it was believed that the disease had been transmitted from him, he added.

Dr Wali said that in Booni, the district headquarters of Upper Chitral, three children were also found suffering from chickenpox. They were students of two different schools, he added.

Official says situation is under control

He said that four more children also showed the symptoms of chickenpox in the earlier affected village of Harchin in Laspur valley. However, he said that situation was under control as locals were taking extraordinary care in social distancing.

Dr Wali said that the schools of the affected children both in Booni and Brep would be closed to contain the spread of the contagious disease. He said that the affected children were isolated in their homes as per standards operating procedures.

He said that sessions on health and hygiene were being held for awareness of people in all the villages of Mastuj tehsil jointly by the health department and district administration after the provincial government declared red alert in the area.

“Instructions have been issued to the heads of all the schools of both public and private sectors in Mastuj tehsil to report about any student suffering from fever to the health department and send the child immediately to the nearest health facility as fever is the first symptom of chickenpox,” said Dr Wali.

He said that a five-year-old child in Brep village showed the initial symptoms of measles whose blood sample was sent to National Institute of Health Islamabad.

BODY: The officials of Rescue 1122 recovered the body of a young woman near Ayun village from the Chitral River here on Sunday afternoon.

An official said that the identity of the woman was yet to be ascertained. The body has been placed in the mortuary of district headquarters hospital.

Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2023