KARACHI: Karachi is in the grip of cholera due to supply of sewage-mixed water in all seven districts of the city where at least 55 lab-confirmed cases of the disease have so far been reported during 2023, officials of the Sindh health department and World Health Organisation (WHO) said, adding that a total of 75 lab-confirmed cholera cases have been reported from Sindh during the ongoing year.
“Around 53 people have tested positive for cholera in Karachi while the total number of lab-confirmed cholera cases in Sindh is 75. This is just the tip of the iceberg as over half a million cases of acute watery diarrhoea (AWD) have been reported in the province during the first six months of this year,” an official of the Communicable Disease Control in the Directorate General Health Services Sindh told The News.
Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal infection caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated with bacterium Vibrio cholerae, says WHO, which has termed cholera a global threat to public health and an indicator of inequity and lack of social development.
The Communicable Disease Control official said the last lab-confirmed cholera case from Karachi was reported in District Malir on July 5 where four people have so far died due to the water-borne disease. He explained that as limited number of tests were being conducted, the number of lab-confirmed cases of cholera was quite low.
According to the official data of the Directorate General Health Services, District East of the Karachi division has had the highest number of lab-confirmed cases of cholera in 2023 as 16 people have tested positive for the disease there.
A total of 14 lab-confirmed cases have been reported from District West, 11 from District South, seven from District Central, four from District Keamari and three from District Malir.
According to the WHO, there are 1.3 million to 4 million cases of cholera reported worldwide everywhere causing 21,000 to 143,000 deaths. The disease can even kill a person within hours if left untreated.
Officials at the National Institute of Health (NIH) Islamabad told The News that at least 43 deaths has so far been reported due to cholera in 11 districts of Pakistan, mainly in Sindh and Balochistan. He added that the actual number could be much higher as in many cases, people had not tested for the disease. “Last year, over 6.4 million cases of diarrhoea were reported from Pakistan, which is often called as acute watery diarrhoea. This year, around three million cases of acute water diarrhoea have already been reported from Pakistan. The situation is worst in Sindh, including Karachi, and Balochistan where people don’t have access to clean drinking water,” Dr Khurram Shahzad, physician and expert of water-borne diseases, said.
Gastroenterologists advise people to boil water for at least 10 minutes before drinking, saying it is the best method to kill bacteria that cause cholera, acute watery diarrhoea, gastroenteritis and typhoid.
“Citizens in Karachi are getting sewage-mixed water for last few decades and due to that, cases of water-borne illnesses have been on the rise.
