Over 100 Tajiks feared to have typhoid - doctor

Over 100 people are thought to have caught typhoid in Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe after heavy rains cut water supplies to the city of 1 million last week, a doctor said Wednesday.

Tajikistan appealed for international help last Thursday after unseasonal torrential rains left its capital without drinking water and washed away large sections of key roads, while a mudslide cut off several villages.

Dushanbe's water supplies have been restored, but officials warn residents not to drink the water which is still dark in color and contains silt and mud.

"Yesterday alone we received 53 people suspected of contracting typhoid. Another 121 people arrived at the end of last week - two thirds of them with typhoid," said a doctor at Dushanbe's only isolation hospital, requesting anonymity.

Officials decline to say if there is a threat of an epidemic.

"We have so far registered only single cases of typhoid," a deputy health minister told Reuters. He did not elaborate.

Infections due to poor sanitation are common in Tajikistan. In 1997, a typhoid outbreak killed around 80 people and infected 10,000 after the disease spread through run-down water systems.

Dushanbe and other towns often lack cash to buy water disinfection equipment, and rural areas fare even worse.

The U.N. Development Program and other international aid bodies have provided $150,000 to disinfect water in Dushanbe, a local U.N. spokesman said.