islamabad: At least one person has died due to cholera in Diplo taluka of Tharparkar district in Sindh where multiple cases of the disease have been confirmed from a village, officials in the health department said, adding that teams had been dispatched to control the situation in the affected areas.
It was also reported that the medical superintendent of the Civil Hospital, Mithi, Dr Zahid Mahmood, was not present when cholera patients were brought to the hospital while senior doctors and trained paramedics were also not there to deal with the emergency.
The provincial health department issued a show-cause notice to the Civil Hospital Mithi medical superintendent over his absence from duty when a significant number of cholera patients were brought to the health facility.
“Medical Superintendent CH Mithi was found absent when a huge number of cholera emergency patients along with a dead body were brought there on the late evening of 29 June,” Sindh Director General Health Dr Irshad Memon wrote in the show-cause notice to the medical superintendent who was asked to appear before Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho on July 4 to explain his position.
Federal and provincial authorities also confirmed the death of a person due to cholera and confirmed at least five cases in Tharparkar. They said teams had been dispatched to deal with the emergency.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), cholera cases have so far been reported from 11 districts of the country during 2023 and the number of
lab-confirmed cases of the disease has been 64.
“As per the WHO statistics, of the 65 lab confirmed cases in Pakistan since the start of this year, 61 are from Sindh while two cases each have been reported from Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” an official of the ministry of national health services told The News.
Show-cause notices
Meanwhile, the Sindh director general health also issued show-cause notices to the district health officers (DHOs) of Matiari, Jamshoro and Sujawal district for remaining absent from their duties during Eidul Azha, which resulted in ‘cooks and ward boys’ offering medical treatment to road accident patients at different health facilities along the major highways.
“In disobedience to government directions and per observations recorded by visiting Director General Health Services Sindh monitoring teams, you were found not on duties during Eid Holidays. The condition of hospitals under your control and status of services delivery were highly pathetic,” Dr Memon wrote in the show-cause notices to the DHOs of Matiari, Jamshoro and Sujawal districts.
It was said in a notice that the district headquarter hospitals in Kotri and Matiari were in a dismal state. The notice read that cooks and ward boys were providing treatment to road accident cases at health facilities in Sann and other roadside facilities in Jamshoro.
The Jamshoro and Matiari DHOs were told to appear before the health minister at the Karachi secretariat on July 4 to explain their position.
Similarly, the condition of health facilities in district Sujawal was also found to be pathetic and the DHO was issued a show-cause notice over the absence of doctors and staff at the health facilities during Eidul Azha.
“The condition of hospitals under your control and status of services delivery were highly pathetic,” Dr Memon write in the show-cause notice to the Sujawal DHO and asked him to explain his performance to the health minister in person next week.
