Four suspected chikungunya cases surface in Sanghar

Patients are relatives who believe they may have been infected at a hospital in Karachi

HYDERABAD/SANGHAR: Four suspected cases of chikungunya disease, a mosquito-borne virus, have surfaced in Sanghar district. The patients, who complained of fever and joint pain, belong to the same family and had recently spent a few days at a hospital in Karachi attending another family member.

The focal person for polio, Dr Arshad Arain, collected their blood samples and dispatched the samples for testing to Islamabad on Friday. He said that symptoms in all the four family members indicate the virus. But, he added, it would be too early to declare that they are suffering from chikungunya.



Sajjad Ahmed Laghari, one of the patients, said his aunt Shama Laghari was admitted in a hospital in Karachi for treatment of a kidney ailment. "We stayed at the hospital day and night for four days," he told the local media, expressing doubts that they might have caught the virus from the hospital.

The other patients include his wife, Nazeeran Laghari, and uncle, Nasrullah Laghari, besides Shama. The family lives in Moulvi Sher Muhammad village near Sanghar town.