DUSHANBE, February 21, Asia-Plus  -- During a severe energy crisis, 12 people died in Tajikistan; of them, four persons died of burns, four others died of carbon monoxide poisoning and four persons died of frostbite, Health Minister Nusratullo Salimov announced at après conference in Dushanbe on February 20.   

            According to him, 85 percent of hospitals in the country now receive electricity supplies irregularly and water is not available in more than 50 percent of the hospitals across the country due to power shortages. 

            A serious situation has emerged in Sughd’s Ghonchi district and Khatlon’s Kulob region due to sever electricity shortages and lack of safe drinking water, the minister said.

            Salimov added that more than 20 people had been hospitalized in Ghonchi on suspicion of having contracted typhoid and viral hepatitis.  “In Kulob, 40 people have been hospitalized on suspicion of having contracted typhoid,” he said, noting that eight of them have already been diagnosed with the disease.  

            Salimov said the ministry of health (MoH) expects the rate of infectious diseases to increase in the mentioned districts and groups of epidemiologists and infectious diseases specialists currently work in Ghonchi and Kulob.  

            On the increase in cases of tuberculosis in the country, the minister noted that a full-scale examination of the population is currently under way in Khatlon’s Vose district.  Such examination will be carried out in Gorno Badakhshan as well, according to him.