DUSHANBE, August 16, 2012, Asia-Plus  -- In Khorog, the provincial capital of the Gorno-Badakhshan Region nine persons have been diagnosed with typhoid.

Bodurbek Bodurbekov, the GBAO chief sanitary inspector, told Asia-Plus in an interview Thursday afternoon that 20 persons have been hospitalized on suspicion of having contracted and nine typhoid diagnoses have been confirmed, while tests of nine other persons for typhoid have not yet been ready.  “To-date, only two typhoid diagnoses have not been confirmed,” Bodurbekov noted.

The outbreak, which has promoted the government to send Samariddin Aliyev, the chief of the Center for Sanitary and Epidemiological Supervision, and Erkin Rahmonov, a chief freelance infectious diseases specialist at the Ministry of Health (MoH), to the GBAO regional capital, was apparently caused by a failure to chlorinate the city’s water supply.

Bodurbekov, however, noted that there were also other suggestions.  “We do not want to expatiate on them,” said the GBAO chief sanitary inspector.  “The real cause of the outbreak will be established after investigation.”