‘Mysterious’ Covid-like respiratory illness kills 21 in Afghanistan

Twenty-one individuals have been killed by a ‘mysterious illness’ in Afghanistan, native media has claimed. 

Cases have all been logged within the mountainous Wakhan area within the north-east of the nation, which borders Tajikistan and Pakistan.

Health chiefs have now been dispatched to the realm to analyze the character of the sickness. 

The instances have all been reported within the mountainous Wakhan district, 230 miles northeast of Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul 

Health officers have raised considerations that the ‘mysterious’ respiratory illness shares similarities with Covid-19  

Details on what the precise sickness is are scarce. 

But the Afghanistan Times reported that officers described it as being ‘very related’ to Covid. 

Covid itself, a sort of coronavirus, was behind a mysterious outbreak within the Chinese metropolis of Wuhan three years in the past. 

The first deaths occurred a fortnight in the past, the Afghanistan Times claimed. 

Kyrgyzstan, which does not border Afghanistan, has dispatched a consultant to the area amid fears that it might unfold additional.

Wakhan is a sparsely-populated, slim strip of territory which incorporates the Pamir Mountains. 

Afghanistan has lately been hit by outbreaks of Cholera and Polio. 

British well being chiefs are additionally monitoring instances of Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever, a viral illness primarily transmitted by ticks, which may show deadly for as much as 40 per cent of instances. 

Wakhan is a sparsely-populated, slim strip of territory which incorporates the Pamir Mountains. Pictured above, cereal fields within the Wakhan valley

It comes because the Taliban-controlled Bakhtar News Agency final week reported that a minimum of 50 kids have died as a consequence of respiratory ailments in only a month within the Baghlan province, northern Afghanistan.  

According to the the company, Baghlan Hospital officers confirmed that 1,000 kids had been contaminated with respiratory ailments within the province during the last month. 

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which helps 33 hospitals throughout Afghanistan, additionally revealed in November that it had seen the variety of kids handled for pneumonia surge over 50 per cent in 2022, in comparison with the identical time within the earlier yr. 

Data shared with The Independent earlier this month by the ICRC, additionally confirmed that pneumonia instances within the nation jumped by 35 per cent in a yr to 213,049 in 2022.