'Superbug’ typhoid spreading in Karachi, says health minister

KARACHI: The epidemic of drug-resistant ‘superbug’ typhoid is now spreading in parts of Karachi because of contaminated water, Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho told the Sindh Assembly.

While responding to queries of lawmakers in the provincial legislature, the minister said as many as 116,000 children aged six months to 10 years had been vaccinated till October 2018, while a training plan for mass vaccination had been completed for Karachi.

She said the mass vaccination plan for other parts of the province was also in process. The province had planned to import conjugated vaccine for four million children and the matter was in process with the federal government and Drug Regulatory Authority Pakistan, she said.

The minister said a tentative plan had been approved for further mass vaccination against typhoid and it would be started this year, adding that the vaccine would be incorporated in routine immunisation after a mass campaign against the disease.

She said that Hyderabad, Latifabad and some localities of Karachi, including Saddar, Lyari, Liaquatabad and North Karachi, were affected more than other parts of the province.

The health minister said polysaccharide vaccination was done through a child survival programme to eligible children as well as a conjugate typhoid vaccine campaign was being carried out in the affected areas of Hyderabad district in collaboration with the Aga Khan University Hospital.

She said that general practitioners were also sensitised and informed by the department regarding the drug-resistant typhoid, irrational use of antibiotics and waterborne diseases.