Undiagnosed disease claims 12 lives in village

Health dept’s team collects water, blood samples from area

LAHORE:

A mysterious disease has left at least 12 people dead in a village of the Rahim Yar Khan district, including eight boys and girls from the same family. The fatalities have been reported during the past 11 days.

The patients complained of severe body ache along with high fever and most of them died within a day after their heartbeat increased. According to local villagers, the disease has not yet been diagnosed.

A health department team visited the village to look into the matter. took blood samples from healthy members of the affected families. It also collected samples of the underground drinking water in the locality for laboratory tests.

An official said the reports of the tests would help identify the fatal disease. Meanwhile, the deaths caused by the disease have triggered panic in the area.

Local people told The Express Tribune that 12 people of the village, including eight children living in a house, had fallen prey to the disease in the Basti Laghari area of Tajpur on the suburbs of Rukanpur.

The families of the deceased said they had developed severe body ache along with high fever. Their heart rate also increased, due to which the patients fell unconscious and died a few hours later.

The victims were aged between two and 25 years, including 18-year-old twin sisters.

A seven-year-old boy and a one-and-a-half-year-old girl suffering from the illness were admitted to the Sheikh Zayed Hospital in Rahim Yar Khan. However, the boy died during treatment.

A team of doctors visited the homes of the children suffering from the disease as part of preliminary steps for the diagnosis.

They obtained blood samples from the surviving members of the affected families.

The doctors said the blood and drinking water samples would be sent to laboratories for tests. They expressed hope that the tests would help identify the ailment and its treatment.

Relatives of the deceased complained that the doctors in the hospital had been unable to diagnose the fatal disease.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 5^th, 2023.