One case of cholera confirmed in Mirpurkhas

Three cases were tested after a suspicion of acute watery diarrhoea.

KARACHI:

An eight-year-old boy has been confirmed with cholera in Mirpurkhas after samples of three suspected cases were sent to Islamabad for testing.

Dr Kamran Ahmed, a public officer with the Disease Early Warning System (Dews) which is part of the World Health Organisation, told The Express Tribune that three cases were being investigated. “We mainly look into cases of acute watery diarrhoea,” he explained. Such cases are at a point of severe dehydration and, therefore, of primary concern, he added. Dews was formed in response to the health threats from last summer’s floods.

The other two cases of a 12-year-old boy and seven-month-old girl were provided oral hydration and have now recovered, Dr Ahmed said.

When asked about the causes and risk of the infectious disease spreading, Dr Ahmed pointed to the “highly contaminated environment” these families were living in. “While the threat of the infection spreading remains, the EDO of Mirpurkas, the DCO, along with WHO and Unicef, are taking all possible measures to ensure the matter is resolved as soon as possible,” he said.

Health EDO Mirpurkhas Dr Shafquat Daheri said all three patients have now recovered. Daheri added that the families of the patients were given chlorine tablets to ensure access to clean water. The doctors also discussed the importance of boiling water before drinking and washing hands and vegetables with them.

At the moment, the EDO, Dews and Unicef teams are following up on other potential cases at Civil Hospital, Mirpurkhas (CHM), while raising awareness through the media and mosques. “We are trying all avenues of communication with parents to get them to start giving their children oral hydration, such as ORS,” he said. In the short-term, he said, they plan to use the launch of the polio campaign on March 28 as a platform for raising awareness on the preventative measures of cholera.

The medical superintendent for CHM, Dr Asghar Arain, said the patients belonged to the Baloch Colony in Mirpurkhas which is “thickly populated and its extremely poor hygiene conditions have been highlighted several times”. According to Arain, these cases are not an indication of an epidemic nor do they pose significant risk of spreading. “We get two to three seasonal cases and these are part of those,” he said.

Cholera: symptoms and treatment

Cholera is an extremely virulent disease affecting children and adults and can kill within hours. About 75 per cent of people infected do not develop any symptoms, although the bacteria are present in their faeces for seven to 14 days. Once the infection is shed back into the environment, it can potentially infect other people.

Among people who develop symptoms, 80 per cent have mild or moderate symptoms, while around 20 per cent develop acute watery diarrhoea with severe dehydration. This can lead to death if untreated.

Up to 80 per cent of the cases can be successfully treated with oral rehydration salts.

People with low immunity, such as malnourished children or people living with HIV, are at a greater risk of death if infected

Source: World Health Organisation

Published in The Express Tribune, March 27^th, 2011.