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 Doctors suspected typhoid, but when the most common antibiotics
failed to work, the boy's family began to panic.
Sajjad is one of more than 11,000 people, mostly children, to have
contracted a drug-resistant strain of the infection in the country
since 2016, and which experts say risks spreading internationally.
He survived, but hundreds have died, predominantly in the southern
province of Sindh.
In response Pakistan's government, already battling outbreaks of
polio and dengue, has launched a huge foreign-funded vaccination
drive that began on Nov 15.
Some 3.4 million children have been vaccinated in the last four days
in Karachi and the neighboring city of Hyderabad where the outbreak
was first reported, said James Fulker, a spokesman for GAVI, a
Geneva-based partnership funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation that is administering the vaccine.
Kept out of school for three months, Sajjad passed the time by
tallying the daily rounds of shots given during his treatment - 84
in all.
"I had not much to do during my illness. I used to keep count of
injections I was being given," he said.
The latest strain is resistant to all but one antibiotic used to
treat typhoid, a bacterial infection transmitted by human faeces. If
it develops resistance to this final antibiotic treatment, disease
experts say, death rates among those infected could rise
dramatically to as much as 20%.
HYGIENE CRISIS
Sanitation is a major issue in Pakistan, especially in Karachi, a
sprawling port city of more than 15 million on the Arabian Sea.
Here, political infighting between two regional parties over refuse
collection has seen huge mounds of garbage pile up in the street.
Reuters visited several areas where the vaccine was being
administered, predominantly in low income areas with poor quality,
illegal housing.
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"Typhoid is a nightmare in countries like Pakistan because the
hygienic situation is not good," said Muhammad Khalid Shafi, a
pediatrician and associate professor at Dow Medical College in
Karachi.
Resistance to immunization programs has hampered attempts to stamp
out other diseases.
In July, officials working on polio prevention told Reuters that
parents suspicious of mass immunization campaigns have been getting
hold of special markers, used by health workers to put a colored
spot on the little fingers of children who have been vaccinated.
They said in some areas, as many as 8% of families may be refusing
or avoiding vaccination, a level which would mean the disease is not
eradicated.
In several areas of Karachi, local mosques make announcements urging
parents to get their children vaccinated against typhoid, especially
in low-income neighborhoods.
The costs of refusing vaccination can be steep. The only antibiotic
treatment to the latest strain of typhoid is expensive. Sajjad's
father, Syed Ahmed Jafer, estimates the cost of his treatment at
400,000 Pakistani rupees ($2,584) - a huge sum for almost any family
in the country.
"People should not be afraid of this campaign," he said.
"There is no cheap treatment, it cannot be ignored."
($1 = 154.8000 Pakistani rupees)
(Reporting by Syed Raza Hassan in Karachi, writing by Alasdair Pal;
Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
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