Four die of gastroenteritis

SUKKUR: Three children and a woman died of gastroenteritis in Thul on Sunday. Eight-year-old Patoli died of gastroenteritis in Allah Rakhio Colony, while three-year-old Samina, five-year-old Amna and Shahul Khatoon in village Ahmedabad lost their lives to the same disease.

Meanwhile, thousands of internally displaced persons across the province are suffering from gastroenteritis, skin infections and eye ailments while the government is still scrambling to take preventive measures. According to sources in Kashmore, so far gastroenteritis has claimed more than two dozen lives in the district. However, the district health officer in Kashmore, Agha Noor Mohammad, maintained that only six people have died of the disease in the district. According to him, 31 medical camps have been established throughout the district to look after patients of gastroenteritis, malaria, skin infections and eye ailments.

Residents return to Thul

Scores of people who left Thul and surrounding villages to escape the impending floods have now started to return to their homes.

Water level in the flooded Garhi Khairo town is receding slowly but there is still four feet of water standing in the town. Bunds established by the motorway to save Shahdadkot town from flooding are reported to be intact and there was no immediate threat to the town. At present, the flood water is heading towards Qubo Saeed Khan town and due to some breaches in water courses, some of the villages in the town’s outskirts have come under water.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 23^rd, 2010.