The disease was first registered in the southern Khatlon district, in the villages bordering Afghanistan, in 1991. Malaria then slowly spread to the whole of Khatlon district, to the capital city of Dushanbe and to districts around that city. In the first 9 months of this year about 4,500 infected people were registered in the town of Kurgonteppa, more than 1,500 in town of Kulob and more than 300 in Dushanbe. Sattorov says that 86 per of infected people are residents of Khatlon district in the south. The northern district of Leninabad remained safe from the disease until just recently, but since September more than 200 residents there have also caught malaria.
Experts says the cause of the spread was internal migration of people.
The second dangerous epidemic in the country, which has affected about 30,000 people, is typhoid. This disease also originated in the southern part of Tajikistan, in mid-1996. According to experts, polluted water supplies led to its spread. In most regions of the republic people use open water resources such as brooks and rivers, but covered water supplies have also proven not to be safe. Because of lack of money to buy chlorine for disinfection, the mayor of Dushanbe last year suggested passing non-disinfected water to the distribution system of the city.