Pakistan: Three children die of chickenpox or measles (?) in Khairpur

[Gert van der Hoek]

Smallpox is a highly unlikely diagnosis. Smallpox was officially declared eradicated in 1979 (WHO).

Chickenpox? Complications can be severe.


Three children die of smallpox in Khairpur

By: Our Staff Reporter | November 19, 2012

KHAIRPUR - Three children died of smallpox in Therimirwah Taulka in Khairpur district. Three children identified as Samander, Ashfaq, Farhan died at village Ajeeb Dasti near Tharimirwah.

According to the villagers, a total of seven children died during the last 48 hours in different villages, but the health department or district administration are still unaware in this regard.

They said due to poor services of the health department, medicines are stolen from health centres while district administration is also not paying attention in this regard.

They have demanded dispatch of doctors teams to their areas as several people including children are suffering from smallpox disease and the people are scared of the rising death toll.

The Nation

See also: Lahore Times - The Frontier Post

See also ProMED-mail post, dated 2002-06-12: SMALLPOX RUMORS - PAKISTAN: UNCONFIRMED

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[alert]

Re: Pakistan: Three children die of chickenpox (?) in Khairpur

Re: Pakistan: Three children die of chickenpox (?) in Khairpur

There is considerable history of "smallpox" reporting out of Pakistan over the past 10 years, including the above. Some of it may be a translation error, with the intended diagnosis of chickenpox. Some of it may also be intentionally false reporting to create a sense of emergency and get medical aid to an area. And at least some of it is legitimate false smallpox alarms (some other disease is being confused with smallpox).

It is unclear which situation this is.

 

[Shiloh]

Re: Pakistan: Three children die of chickenpox (?) in Khairpur

Re: Pakistan: Three children die of chickenpox (?) in Khairpur

Reported as measles on Nov. 18th: http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-2-143578-Eight-children-have-died-of-measles-in-Khairpur

Eight children have died of measles in Khairpur
our correspondent
Sunday, November 18, 2012
From Print Edition

SUKKUR: Some cases of measles have reportedly claimed lives of eight children in the town of Thari Mirwah in Khairpur in the last one week.

Two of those who died were five and the rest under five years of age. They were identified as Munsif, Ali, Farhan, Safdar Ali, Baig Muhammed, Shakeel, Ashfaque and Dhani Bakhsh...

 

[alert]

Re: Pakistan: Three children die of chickenpox or measles (?) in Khairpur

Way to go, Gert.

Published Date: 2012-11-19 15:37:23
Subject: PRO/EDR> Fatal illness - Pakistan: (SD) children, conflicting diagnoses, RFI
Archive Number: 20121119.1415723

FATAL ILLNESS - PAKISTAN: (SINDH) CHILDREN, CONFLICTING DIAGNOSES, REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
******************************************************************************************
A ProMED-mail post
http://www.promedmail.org
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
http://www.isid.org

[1]Date: Mon 19 Nov 2012
Source: The Nation [edited]
http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-n...12/three-children-die-of-smallpox-in-khairpur


Three children died of smallpox in [Thari Mirwah taluka (sub-district)] in Khairpur district. 3 children [names withheld - Mod.CP] died at village Ajeeb Dasti near Thari Mirwah. According to villagers, a total of 7 children died during the last 48 hours in different villages, but the health department or district administration are still unaware in this regard. They said due to poor services of the health department, medicines are stolen from health centres while the district administration is also not paying attention in this regard.

They have demanded dispatch of doctor teams to their areas as several people including children are suffering from smallpox disease and the people are scared of the rising death toll.

[Almost identical reports report have appeared in the Frontier Post http://www.thefrontierpost.com/article/192722/, and the Lahore Tines http://www.promedmail.org/direct.php?id=20020612.4479.]

--
Communicated by:
Gert van der Hoek
Senior Moderator
FluTrackers
http://flutrackers.com

******
[2]
Date: Mon 19 Nov 2012
Source: The International News [edited]
http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-2-143578-Eight-children-have-died-of-measles-in-Khairpur


Some cases of measles have reportedly claimed lives of 8 children in the town of Thari Mirwah in Khairpur during the past one week. 2 of those who died were 5 and the rest under 5 years of age. [2 of the 5 had the same names as 2 of the children identified in part [1] above, who likewise resided in a village near the town of Thari Mirwah. - Mod.CP]

The people of the area have appealed to the provincial Health Department to take notice of the outbreak of measles, which has already claimed 8 lives in a week. Meanwhile, a team of the Health Department visited the area and collected blood samples of some of those suffering from the disease. The people of the area have not heard from the team since then.

--
Communicated by:
Gert van der Hoek
Senior Moderator
FluTrackershttp://flutrackers.com

[Khairpur is a district in Sindh province of Pakistan. It can be located in the map of Sindh province at http://pakistan360degrees.com/categ...-about-pakistan/descriptive-maps-of-pakistan/.

Undoubtedly these contradictory reports refer to the same incident. In the absence of a description of the illness a precise diagnosis cannot be proposed with confidence. The suggested diagnosis of smallpox in the 1st report cannot be sustained since this disease has been eradicated and the last confirmed case was identified in Somalia in 1977 (http://www.who.int/csr/disease/smallpox/en/).

There is precedent for misdiagnosing measles as smallpox in Sindh province, Pakistan (see ProMED-mail post: Unexplained deaths, measles? - Pakistan (Sindh): RFI 20020401.3854). Currently measles is widespread throughout Pakistan with significant mortality. Chickenpox is another childhood disease, which by name and symptoms might be confused with smallpox (see http://www.cdc.gov/chickenpox/about/complications.html). Further information is awaited. - Mod.CP

 

[Ronan Kelly]

Re: Pakistan: Three children die of chickenpox or measles (?) in Khairpur

Some recent outbreaks from Khairpur district - the numbers listed are case no.s in the catagories <5M, >5M, <5F, >5F. Sindh province has seen a total of 4,389 cases of measles with 85 deaths to Nov 3rd this year.

31-Oct
Measles
Sindh
Khairpur
Village Allah Warayo Behleem UC Agra Taluka Gambat
10
5
6
3
Suspected measles case was reported from RHC Agra. Alert was investigated and re-sponded. During field investigation 24 more suspected cases including one death were found. All cases were linelisted. Blood samples were taken and sent to NIH. Vitamin A were given to all suspected measles cases. EPI status of ten children was checked. All had BCG scars. Information was shared with DHMT. Mop up activity regarding routine immunization was advised along with measles containment measures.

2-Nov
Measles
Sindh
Khairpur
Near Makhdoom Dargah Piryaloi city & UC Taluka Kingri
0
1
3
1
Suspected measles case was reported from local HCP. Alert was timely responded. During field investigation 4 more cases were found. All were linelisted. Blood samples were taken and sent to NIH. Vitamin A were given to all suspected measles cases. EPI cluster was taken among ten children. Six were found with BCG scar. All information was shared with DHMT and mop up activity regarding routine immunization was ad-vised along with measles containment measures.

2-Nov
Measles
Sindh
Khairpur
Vilage Sardai Jatoi UC Gambat I
7
0
9
0
Suspected measles case was reported from GIMS THQH Gambat. Alert was timely re-sponded. During field investigation 15 cases were found including one death. All were linelisted. Blood samples were taken and sent to NIH. Vitamin A were given to all sus-pected measles cases. EPI cluster of 10 children was taken, where four were found with BCG scar. All information was shared with DHMT and mop up activity regarding routine immunization was advised along with measles containment measures.

2-Nov
Measles
Sindh
Khairpur
Village Eidan chachar UC Kot Mir Muham-mad Taluka Kingri
2
0
6
1
Suspected measles case was reported from BHU Piryaloi. During field investigation, 8 more cases were found. All were linelisted. Blood samples were taken and sent to NIH. Vitamin A were given to all suspected measles cases. EPI cluster of 12 children was taken, where all children found unvaccinated. Information was shared with DHMT and mop up activity regarding routine immunization was advised along with measles con-tainment measures.

http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefwe...kly-Epidemiological-Bulletin-116-07112012.pdf