THATTA, Dec 9: With the death of three more persons, the toll of gastroenteritis patients has reached 52 since its outbreak in Thatta coastal belt a month ago.

The latest victims were two brothers, Allah Dito Magsi and Laung Magsi, residents of the Ilyas Magsi village of Shah Bunder taluka, and the daughter of Syed Mohammad Shah, resident of Abdullah Shah village.

Meanwhile, eight more gastroenteritis patients, belonging to the villages of Goongan, Jamalo Otho, Yousuf Jamali and others, were brought to the Rural Health Centre, Chuhar Jamali.

Two of them were hospitalized due to their critical condition and the others were allowed to go home after receiving treatment.

The villages of Saleh Otho, Yousuf Jamali, Gulsher Sanjrani, Qadir Dino Shah, Ilyas Magsi and Lemoon Mallah are still in the grip of the epidemic.

The cyclone-hit and poverty-stricken residents of the villages cannot afford to get the gastroenteritis patients treated in private hospitals of the towns.

Th district health officer, Thatta, Dr Hafeez Memon, told newsmen that a team of medical officers, constituted under the directives of Sindh health secretary Amir Ali Barq, was visiting the coastal villages to compile the facts and figures about the epidemic.

He said that so far the team had confirmed 16 deaths against the figure of three deaths, officially given to the health secretary during his recent visit of the affected area.

Meanwhile, a team of the People’s Doctors Forum (PDF), headed by its Sindh chief, Dr Karim Khwaja, following its two-day visit of the affected villages, said that the failure of the irrigation department to provide clean drinking water to the residents of affected villages had caused spread of the disease in the coastal area.

In its report, the copies of which were provided to journalists, the PDF stated that the sea intrusion had resulted into hyper salinity in the area and its people were drinking unhygienic water.

The report also criticized the district health department for failing to tackle the situation.

It also deplored that Sindh Irrigation Minister Syed Aijaz Ali Shirazi, who belonged to Thatta district, had not bothered to visit the affected area.