CHITRAL: Typhoid outbreak has been reported from Rumbur Kalash valley and adjacent Attani village of Ayun in Lower Chitral district, where tens of residents have shown the symptoms of the disease.

Lower Chitral district health officer Dr Fayaz Rumi told Dawn that the samples of blood and urine of suspected patients tested positive for Extensive Drug-Resistant Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhi. He said samples of patients, who were admitted to the District Headquarters Hospital, were sent to National Institute of Health, Islamabad.

He said six patients were not responding to treatment and were thus suspected of the syndrome, while more such cases were being reported from the nearby village of Attani.

He said in-charges of health facilities in the region had been alerted, while teams were dispatched to the affected areas for providing treatment and educating people in order to contain spread of the disease.

Mr Rumi said water samples taken from the affected areas had been sent to a Peshawar-based laboratory for test, and receipt of the result would help establish opinion about the cause of the disease.

He said the public health engineering department had been advised to carry out chlorination of its water tanks in the areas, supplying water to residents.

He said symptoms of prolonged fever, fatigue, headache, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhoea had been reported in large number of people of all ages in the affected villages.

BAR POLLS: Ikram Hussain Advocate was elected unopposed as president of Drosh Tehsil Bar Association, Lower Chitral. Other office-bearers were also elected unopposed.

The cabinet members included Ghaffar Ali vice-president, Iltaf Hussain general secretary, Hussain Ahmed finance secretary, Mir Azam Khan press secretary and Hashima Parveen library secretary.

Senior lawyers Fazle Maula and Naveedur Rahman Chughtai were also elected as members of the executive committee unopposed.

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2024