Authorities deny as lab-confirmed cholera cases rise in Lahore

LAHORE: Following Karachi, several lab-confirmed cases of cholera, a lethal water-borne disease, have been reported from different areas of Lahore, health officials and healthcare professionals said on Thursday, but ironically no advisory or alert has been issued to warn people of the deadly disease.

“There are some (lab-confirmed cholera) cases but the situation is under control. There are not many (cholera) cases in Lahore”, an official at the National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination (NHSR&C) in Islamabad told The News.

Former Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on health Dr Faisal Sultan also confirmed there was at least one lab-confirmed case of cholera reported by the Shaukat Khanum Laboratory in Lahore.

Healthcare professionals at different public and private hospitals in Lahore said that several-lab-confirmed cases in the city and some adjoining areas were reported to Director General Health Office Punjab but unfortunately, no official advisory of cholera outbreak has been issued either by the Punjab health authorities, National Institutes of Health (NIH) Islamabad or WHO.

“Hundreds of cases of acute diarrhoea are being reported in Lahore for the last two months. Even on the three days of Eid, we had several dozen patients with diarrhoea and acute gastroenteritis at our hospital”, an official of the Jinnah Hospital Lahore said. Other hospitals in Lahore including Mayo Hospital, Combined Military Hospital (CMH) Lahore, Services Hospital Lahore and some other private health facilities also confirmed that they had admitted lab-confirmed cases of cholera, adding that people with acute diarrhoea and gastroenteritis were brought to their emergency wards on daily basis.

But despite confirmation from several labs and health facilities, the Director-General Health Services Punjab Dr Haroon Jahangir was not willing to confirm that any cholera case has been reported anywhere in the province including Punjab.

“We have several suspected cases and the samples have been sent to the labs for culture and confirmation of cholera but so far we don’t have any lab confirmation of cholera in Lahore”, Dr Haroon Jahangir said when asked how many cholera cases had so far been reported in the province, especially Lahore.

When his attention was drawn towards confirmation of cholera cases by the CMH authorities as well as some private health facilities including Shaukat Khanum Lab, he said he had been apprised of the ‘suspected cholera cases’ by the CMH officials, adding that it was likely that these cases would be confirmed by the labs but so far they didn’t have any confirmation. To a query, he said if a single cholera case is reported anywhere, it is declared as an outbreak of the water-borne disease and every person should report it to the authorities.