HARIPUR, July 28: Four more women from Khanpur were operated on for appendicitis at a hospital in Abbottabad as the local health authorities have failed to take measures against the epidemic, Dawn learns.

As many as 22 women from two villages of Khanpur had undergone surgery for swollen appendix last week.

Physicians attributed the outbreak of the disease to water borne E.Coli bacteria or tiny pieces of stones contained in water as the residents of the two villages use water of a stream that originates from a nearby hill.

Family sources of the patients said the four women, between 20 to 27, had been operated on for the disease.  

Though the local health authorities including the EDO Health and DHQ Hospital had been informed of the disease’s outbreak, but these offices neither sent any team to the area nor contacted the surgeons conducting these operations to ascertain the causes, they said.