HYDERABAD, Feb 24: Sixteen people, most of them children, died of a mysterious disease in a village in the Dadu district during the last few days.

The disease hit the Makhdoom Sahar village after the recent heavy rain.

However, when contacted on telephone, Dr Roshan Bhatti of the office of the director-general, Sindh health services, told Dawn 11 persons, including six children, had died due to respiratory infection and not of a mysterious disease during the last “two months”.

He said child specialists Dr Ismail Lashari and Dr Abdur Razzaq were camping in the village for the last five days and claimed that no fresh case had been reported.

He said director-general Dr Abdul Qadir Memon had also asked the vice-chancellor of the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences to send a team of specialist doctors to the village.

Meanwhile, vice-chancellor Prof Jan Mohammad Memon confirmed on Monday that two consultants of the university, Dr Akram Shaikh and Dr Younus Dahar, had been deputed to visit the village and investigate the outbreak of the disease.

The team is scheduled to visit the village on Feb 26 and it would submit a detailed report to the vice-chancellor who would send it to the secretary, health, Sindh.

Our Dadu Correspondent adds: The EDO, health, Dadu, Dr Khadim Hussain Lakhair, has confirmed the deaths of eleven persons — including children between the ages of three months to five years — in Makhdoom Sehar village, Kotri taluka.