CHITRAL: The number of chickenpox cases in Upper Chitral district has surged from 119 last week to 251 with teachers and students of 14 schools being hit by the acute contagious disease, says the local administration.

Upper Chitral deputy commissioner Khalid Zaman told Dawn that three schools had been closed for a week over high chickenpox incidence among students.

He said the schools included Government High School Harchin (65 cases), Government Primary School Sor Laspur (57 cases) and Government Girls Middle School Harchin (46 cases).

The DC said that the administration had started public awareness sessions about chickenpox in different villages of the district.

DC says awareness sessions being organised

He said experts were educating people about how the contagious disease spread, how it could be contained and what role they had to perform for its control and prevention.

Mr Zaman said chickenpox was initially limited to Laspur valley in Mastuj tehsil but it later spread to Mulkhow tehsil, where more than 20 cases had so been reported.

He said no one had been diagnosed with the disease in Oveer, Rech, Khot and Broghil areas and Kosht, Gohkir, Lone, Reshun, Morder, Kushum, Werkup, Istaru and Washich villages.

RELIEF PROJECT: The Helping Hand for Relief and Development (HH4RD) has completed a Rs15 million flood relief project in villages of Lower and Upper Chitral districts.

HH4RD district coordinator Shujaul Haq Baig told reporters on Friday that both food and non-food items were distributed to the families hit by this year’s flash floods in Rumbur, Ayun, Golen and Koghuzi villages of Lower Chitral and Awi, Miragram and Brep villages of Upper Chitral.

He said those people were identified by the administrations of both districts.

“As the first responder, our organization provided cooked food to flood victims, who were fully or partially homeless and were not in a position to cook for themselves,” he said.

Mr Baig said the uncooked food items were wheat flour, rice, cooking oil and pulses, while the non-food items included tents, shelters, tarpaulin sheets, kitchenware, hygiene kits and jerry canes.

He added that most families lost home appliances to the flood.

“The goods distribution process was supervised by our manager (emergency relief) Sajid Ali Chaddar and provincial regional manager Aminullah, who ordered immediate increase in the volume of relief items after their interaction with the affected families,” he said.

He said free medical camps were also held on need basis in anumber of villages, including Kalash valley of Rumbur, where free medicines along with financial aid were given away to those referred to the secondary healthcare hospitals.

Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2023