Four die in Dera Bugti cholera outbreak

QUETTA:

At least four people lost their lives after cholera broke out in Balochistan’s Dera Bugti district on Wednesday and reportedly infected hundreds others mostly women and children.

“Four people including a child have died,” the District Health Officer (DHO) Dera Bugti Muhammad Azam Bugti confirmed.

However, people of the area and independent sources told The Express Tribune that the number of deaths was well over a dozen in the Pir Koh area of Dera Bugti.

They said that the ill-equipped hospitals in the district were packed with patients and their attendants in the area.

“Women and children are also among the victims and the health department has done nothing to handle this emergency situation,” Muhammad Bakhsh Bugti, a resident of the area said.

He added that the provincial government had failed to improve health facilities in the district despite repeated assurances and announcements and now the local residents were bearing the brunt of their mistakes.

He said that five family members of his family including a child had been admitted to Pir Koh hospital after they contracted cholera because of contaminated water.

“They are under treatment and we pray for their recovery,” he said.

Chief Minister Balochistan, Mir Quddus Bizenjo has taken notice of the outbreak and directed the health department to increase its efforts to provide health facilities for the patients in a timely manner.

The CM has ordered an immediate release of Rs10 million for the treatment of affected people in Dera Bugti district, an official handout issued on Wednesday evening says.

Availability of clean drinking water is a serious issue across much of Balochistan forcing people to drink water mixed with other hazardous minerals.

The situation has also prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to dispatch its team to the affected areas.

“We have dispatched a team to investigate and assess the situation,” an official of the WHO said.

The DHO said cholera had affected around 1,500 people in the area.

“Most of the patients are either women or children,” he said.

He admitted that the major reason behind the spread of cholera was use of contaminated water by local residents as safe potable water is not widely available.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 12^th, 2022.