Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health official denies cholera cases

PESHAWAR - Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Director-General of Health, Dr. Sajid Shaheen, has contradicted the reports about cholera case in the province.

Dr. Sajid said that the health teams deputed in the affected areas had been reporting complaints of watery diarrhoea, but there was no report of cholera as yet.

“The situation is extremely precarious in Swat, but our teams have established a surveillance system to check epidemics,” The Dawn quoted Dr. Shaheen, as saying.

“People are suffering from acute watery diarrhoea, but the situation is under control,” he added.

The United Nations fears that hundreds of thousands of lives are at risk from disease after Pakistan’s devastating floods.

So far, the UN has confirmed only one case of cholera, but other cases are suspected among those with diarrhoea.

Mark Ward, acting director of the US department for foreign disaster assistance, said cholera was “unavoidable”, but could be controlled.

“The good news is that we know where it is and we can get resources in there to help because of the disease early warning system,” Ward said.When you are dealing with this much water and that many people, it (cholera) is almost unavoidable. I think we can control this,” he added.

Cholera, a bacterial intestinal infection typically spread through contaminated water, causes severe diarrhoea and dehydration and can be fatal. (ANI)