Tens of people infected with the deadly disease in the north-east, officials say
AN OUTBREAK of malaria in the north-eastern province of Badakhshan has killed two children and infected tens of others, official say.
Police officer Noor Khan, who lost his eight-year-old son to the disease, said: “The doctors were not paying attention to my son. I had spent all my salary on medicine to try and save him, but he still died.”
But, the head of Badakhshan’s central hospital, Dr Nijla Zarifee, said Khan had brought his son to the hospital too late.
Khan sai more than one hundred people, including children, were infected with malaria in his district, Dam Sara.
Dr Zarifee said malaria, whihc is passed to humans through mosquitoes, had spread in the last week to villages around the provincial capital of Faizabad, killing two children and infecting many others.
She complained that the hospital was not stocked with sufficient supplies of medicine and that patients often travelled to private clinics for treatment.
She warned that if the spread of the disease was not stopped immediately, the number of malaria-infected patients in the province would increase.
Dr Mohammad Ibrahim, who runs a private clinic in the province, said he had cured about 20 children who had caught the disease.
The head of the province’s public health department, Dr Abdul Momin Jalali, said one child had died from malaria so far according reports he had received.
Dr Jalali said a research team had been sent to Sam Dara to assess the disease.
Health Officials said mosquito nets could prevent future outbreaks.
Last year, the disease spread to the villages of Darai Rigee, Darai Wazir, Chenarak, and Dashti Qurugh killing two children
Source: quqnoos.com - Malaria outbreak kills two children
Indexed under: Afghanistan, Badakhshan, Malaria
