THATTA, June 26: The ecological deterioration for a couple of years has pushed the deltaic population of Thatta, Badin and Hyderabad districts, residing within 80 to 90 orbital kilometres, into a psychiatric condition, known as Transient Hysteric Phobia (THP), a disease claimed to have been discovered for the first time in the country.
The mysterious disease in the deltaic range was detected by a medical mission, organized by the People’s Doctors Forum (PDF), led by its president, Dr Karim Khwaja, a psychiatrist and ex-consultant to former Sindh Chief Minister on health affairs.
The fact-finding medical team comprised Prof Musarrat, Dr Bekharam, assistant professor of medicine at the Liaquat Medical University, and Dr Raza, neurologist of the Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Centre.
The disease has multiplied the miseries of the already cyclone, drought, earthquake and super flood-hit inhabitants of the Indus Delta.
The team visited Mirpur Bathoro taluka, Pirano Lund village, Lal Mehmoodani Union Council, Tando Mohammad Khan taluka, Ghorabari taluka, Kharochhan and other areas of the three districts.
As the inhabitants of the area are dependent on water of the Kotri Barrage, they have been experiencing acute water shortage which has destroyed their agriculture-based life.
The team felt that the people of the area might be feeling sub-conscious fear because of the said calamities.
The patients of THP suffer from fear, dry mouth, sudden blindness and amnesia.
When people are attacked by the disease, they start tearing apart their cloths, run here and there and fall unconscious. Some also suffer from depression and the whole episode of the attack last for seven to twelve days, after which the patients start recovering.
The World Health Organisation and the Sindh Health Department will be sent a detailed report about the disease by the fact-finding mission, that visited far-flung coastal sites, examined patients and gave free medicines to them, said Dr Khwaja.
The mission members said that not only doctors but environmentalists also believed that the significant reduction in downstream water up to Kotri, sea intrusion in the coastal areas of Thatta and Badin and frequent tremors had been adding miseries to the life.
Acknowledging the outbreak of Leishmaniasis in Badin district last February, the team said the THP could be cited as the second most occurring phenomenon.
Expecting action plan from the Sindh health department, the team said it was a new kind of psychiatric illness, which vanished with the passage of time but left traumatic stigma on affected families, who, the members of the team said, should preferably contact psychiatrists instead of going to Mazars and Pirs for recovery.