Naegleria claims another life
The brain eating bug Naegleria Fowleri, which has claimed the life of a 35-year-old man - Shakeel Ahmed Memon in Hyderabad, has been detected apparently in the water supply system in Qasimabad Town. The district health officer Lala Jafar Khan confirmed to The Express Tribune that a resident of Qasimabad died during treatment in a hospital in Karachi. Two more persons have also been reportedly infected by the virus but the health authorities are yet to verify this information.
Jafar Khan said, the health authorities have collected the samples from the water supply network of Hyderabad Water and Sewerage Corporation (HW&SBC). The lab report is expected in 14 days.w
Meanwhile, the Directorate General Health Services Sindh has written a letter to the authorities in Hyderabad, recommending urgent chlorination of water in supply network in Hyderabad, specifically in Qasimabad taluka.
Additional director communicable diseases control has asked the authorities to properly chlorinate water and ensure that effects of chlorine remain throughout the supply network.
Water Disinfection
The HW&SBC Managing Director Zahid Khemtio informed The Express Tribune that water is being disinfected at the city's filtration plants by applying hypochlorite and not chlorine.
He wondered why emphasis is being laid by the health authorities on Qasimabad when the filtered water from the two main filtration plants in Jamshoro is being supplied to the Hyderabad city and Latifabad as well. "We sent water samples from the plants over a week ago for lab test and the reports were negative," he claimed.
However, an official of WASA, requesting anonymity, said that sodium hypochlorite is less effective than chlorine. But, for him, the bigger challenge is to ensure that the water disinfection remains intact from the head to the tail end of the supply network.
"Chlorine is applied in the head region and it diffuses midway," he said. "If we apply chlorine beyond permissible limits with the aim to ensure that it remains in water, the excess will make the consumers in the head areas sick." According to him, a proposal has been discussed for a long time to add chlorine on several intervals.