DUSAHNBE, July 19, Asia-Plus - The present situation and further prognosis on typhoid in the Tajik capital do not evoke concern, Sherali Rahmatulloyev, deputy head of the Dushanbe Health Department, said in his interview with Asia-Plus.

60 people have been diagnosed with typhoid so far this year, which is 12 cases more compared to the same period of last year, according to him.   

“These figures are evidence of better detection of the disease,” the Dushanbe official said, noting that that typhoid patients most are taken to two medical facilities in the city: Children’s Isolation Hospital with 190 beds and the City Medical Center with 60 beds.

According to him, three are children in the Dushanbe Children’s Isolation Hospital on suspicion of having contracted typhoid.  “All of them are residents of the nearby districts,” Rahmatulloyev said.  “In the City Medical Center , currently there are only four patients diagnosed with typhoid,” the Dushanbe health official noted.   

A board meeting of the Health Ministry that was held last Saturday focused on the infectious diseases situation in Tajikistan .  During the meeting it was noted that compared to January-June 2006 cases of typhoid and hepatitis have reduced in the country over the first six months of this year.  However, cases of dysentery and acute intestinal dieses have increased in Tajikistan over the same six-month period, according to medical workers.  

Experts hold that outbreak of infectious diseases is mainly caused by a failure to chlorinate the city’s water supply.  

The Minister of Health Nusrtatullo Fayzulloyev telling a Saturday ministry’s board meeting noted that according to official statistics, only 56.3 percent of the population in the country had access to safe drinking water.  “More than 50 percent of water supply systems, especially in the rural areas, do not meet requirements,” said the minister, “Thus, 39 percent of regional water pipelines do not have mechanism of protection.”