Hepatitis crises in Osh

Authorities in the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh are struggling to stem a severe outbreak of hepatitis, the Institute of War & Peace Reporting (IWPR) stated on Thursday. (www.iwpr.org) Cases of viral hepatitis have almost tripled in the southern Kyrgyz oblast of Osh over the last year, as a result of the authorities’ failure to enforce basic sanitary and hygiene standards, IWPR said. The source for many of the infections were the new snack-bars and restaurants in Osh, Kyrgyzstan’s second largest city, established in the run-up to its 3000th anniversary celebrations in early October. Local authorities had failed to regulate the outlets where meat, fish, fruit and vegetables were sold among piles of litter and traffic-choked streets. Another reason behind the spread in the disease was the absence of clean drinking water. Those fortunate to have running water were often hit by intestinal illnesses from the constant seeping of river water into the city water system. This resulted from a blunder during the construction of the central water treatment plan on the banks of the Ak-Bura river. The use of second-rate materials allowed unpurified river water to leak into the basin and a shortage of funds has meant the council has been unable to complete the job. Children in Osh remain the most vulnerable to hepatitis and other infections. At the last meeting o the city’s Emergency Anti-Epidemic Commission, a long line of decrees were adopted and health services alerted that “it was time they put their affairs in order,” IWPR reported.