Pneumonia and flu kill 30 in Ghowr

The United Nations in Kabul said on Monday tha severe influenza and pneumonia had killed 30 people due to extreme cold in the western provinces of Ghowr in late December. "This is not an outbreak of whooping cough, as has been reported, but a severe type of influenza and pneumonia," Manoel de Almieda e Silva, a spokesperson of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said on Monday. UNAMA said according to UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) some 30 people, mostly children, were reported to have died so far. "The cases have been confirmed in an area called Bandari Boor, which is approximately 30 km south of the center of Shahrak district. Five villages - Sofak, Nawi Mazar, Zoroomi Olia, Zoroomi Sofla, and Beedan - comprising 250 households have been affected. It is worth noting that this part of Afghanistan is subject to extremely cold weather and the population in the area is very destitute," the spokesperson said. UNICEF told IRIN, however, that the situation was now under control now and the UN agency had sent medicines through a local aid organisation. "The national NGO CHA [Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance] was requested to dispatch staff for an initial assessment and treatment of the cases. Initial assessment was that the cases were of acute respiratory infection due to extreme cold," Chulho Hyun, a communication officer of UNICEF said. The UN children agency said a CHA medical team with required medicines, which UNICEF had positioned in advance of the winter months, was deployed in the area. "The reported cases and reported number of fatalities are indeed a cause for concern, however, as we are still awaiting a more comprehensive report from the field," the communications officer maintained. Meanwhile officials at the Afghan Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) confirmed the incident but they still did not have a report from the field due to lack of proper communications with the MOPH team in Ghowr. "We were also informed through local media and a health organisation MDM [Medicines du Monde] in the area. Unfortunately we do not have communication means with the health officials in the area. But MDM told us a truck of medicine was on its way to the affected area," Abdullah Fahim, a spokesman for the MoPH told IRIN. MoPH said diseases of this kind were common at this time of the year in inaccessible areas like Ghor. "But I don't think it is a huge outbreak with increasing cases. We have enough medicine and will respond once we are informed by the regional office in Herat," Fahim maintained.