LARKANA, Feb 18: A team of doctors headed by Professor (Dr) Wazir Mohammad Shaikh have found an ‘incurable’ disease in 24 patients of the Khilo Ganwas village near Nasirabad.

The team visited the village after receiving a letter from the president’s secretariat and the Sindh health secretary.

Professor (Dr) Noor Ahmed Channa, the head of the department of paediatrics at the Chandka Medical College, Professor (Dr) Ghulam Murtaza Pathan, the head of the department of pathology at the CMC, and Dr Khalil Ahmed Katpar, executive district officer of health in Qambar, were members of the team.

EDO Katpar told Dawn on Saturday that the hereditary disease was diagnosed as ‘progressive muscular dystrophy’ (limb girdle type).

He said that patients initially felt difficulty in walking, running and progressively in sitting and standing.

When the condition worsened, the patient could not stand without support and even unable to hold or carry objects, the EDO said.

The disease started in 1985 in the village and still existed.

The disease mainly hit young men between the ages of 15 and 18 years.

At least 27 cases had been reported so far, out of which 24 were male, Dr Katpar said.

Since the disease was hereditary and not curable, the team suggested some preventive measures, including discouraging of cousin marriages.

This was a genetic problem that could only be solved by discouraging cousin marriages.