FAIZABAD (PAN): A cholera outbreak that killed a 19-year-old girl and infected at least 1450 people in northern Badakhshan province has been controlled, health officials said on Monday
The girl died after she was infected with cholera in Derayam district, Public Health Director Noor Khawari said, confirming more than 1400 people had been daignosed postive. Of them 25 persons were taken to the provincial capital as they were in critical condition.
Khawari called the lack of clean drinking water the main reason behind the outbreak, saying mobile health teams had been dispatched to the area to provide treatment to the infected individuals.
International non-governmental organisations, including WHO, UNICEF and Merlin, were also assisting the health teams in dealing with the infected, he said.
The mobile teams have returned to Faizabad, but two teams of the Afghan Red Crescent Society would remain in the area to lookafter the patiants and control further infections.
The governor’s spokesman, Abdul Maroof Rasikh, praised the public health department for taking timely action to control the epidemic.
Health officials said the disease had not been properly diagnosed and blood samples of the infected individuals had been sent to Kabul.
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