Time running out for kids suffering from phantom disease

Schoolteacher’s children have been suffering from an undiagnosed disease for several years.


Express October 14, 2010

DERA GHAZI KHAN: A schoolteacher’s children have been suffering from an undiagnosed disease for several years.

Tehsil Phellao resident Farukh Langah said that his children were suffering from an undiagnosed ailment. “I have taken them to as many doctors as I can. We have seen doctors in Islamabad and Lahore but no one has been able to come up with a diagnosis,” Langah said, whose 4-year-old son recently died from the disease and the remaining two children are said to be in critical condition.

Dera Ghazi Khan Hospital’s Dr Asad said that he was baffled by the disease. “I had never really encountered anything like it before, their bodies were covered in welts and they were all running an extremely high fever,” he said. Dr Asad transferred the children’s medical records to several doctors in the country. “I got back letters saying that they too had never encountered such an ailment. Until, that is, a doctor in Karachi forwarded the records abroad,” he said.

Langah’s children are suffering from a rare disease that has so far been classified as 1L12RB1 by a team of French researchers. “There is a study group dedicated to exploring the symptoms of the disease in detail but so far only 140 cases have been reported throughout the world,” Dr Asad said.

Langah said that his 4-year-old son Hassan recently died after running a 105 degrees Celsius temperature for nearly three days. “We tried everything to bring the temperature down but he died,” Langah said, adding that doctors had worked to bring his temperature down but failed. Langah’s other two children are reportedly also in critical condition. “The other children have also developed a fever and we are trying to have them sent to a different hospital but he does not have enough money to continue paying for their treatment,” Dr Asad said.

Langah said that his 11-year-old daughter Batool and his seven-seven-year-old son Bilawal were developing the same symptoms as Hassan. “I have tried everything but all my money has already been spent on their treatment,” Langah said, appealing to the federal government and Punjab chief minister for assistance.

The children’s symptoms include large boils that have formed all over their bodies, bleeding from all orifices of the body and high fever. Batool and Bilawal are being administered high potency anti-biotic injections daily but their fevers have not broken for a day.

District officer Dr Fazal Kareem said that he was working to fly the children out of the city and to Karachi for treatment. “We are also trying to collaborate with the French research team but there doesn’t seem to be enough time,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 14th, 2010.

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