http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/08/2010816112835740506.html
Monday, August 16, 2010
23:06 Mecca time, 20:06 GMT
Disease risk for Pakistani children
Al Jazeera's Imran Khan reports on unforeseen problems in the aid
effort
Millions of children in Pakistan are at high risk from deadly water-borne
diseases in the wake of the country's worst flooding in living memory, the UN
has warned.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has been placed on standby to deal with a
potential cholera outbreak following warnings from medical experts of "a second
wave of death" in the disaster zone.
"WHO is preparing to assist up to 140,000 people in case there is any cholera,
but the government has not notified us of any confirmed case," Maurizio
Giuliano, a spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs (OCHA), said on Monday.
"Up to 3.5 million children are at high risk of deadly water-borne diseases
including diarrhoea-related, such as watery diarrhoea and dysentery," he said,
estimating the total number at risk from such diseases to be around six million.
OCHA said figures for how many people may have already died from disease
following the floods were not available, but insisted work was being done to
assess the situation.
"The mortality caused by the incidence of these diseases is increasing. We
don't have figures at this moment, but WHO is working round the clock in
support for the government to come up with numbers," he said.
Patients turned away
Medical teams working on the ground are in no doubt as to the scale of the
threat posed by diseases. At the Dera Ismail Khan government hospital in
Peshawar on Monday, staff reported being inundated with hundreds of patients
suffering from diarrhoea and vomiting.
Special coverage
Many were turned away from the hospital as doctors focused their resources on
helping sick children, staff said.
Cholera, which can spread rapidly after floods and other disasters, poses a
serious threat, says the UN. The disease has been detected in the northwest,
but there have been only a few reported cases so far.
Typhoid and hepatitis outbreaks are also a risk as survivors of the floods,
which have killed at least 1,600 people, are forced to drink unclean water to
survive.
The health warning comes a day after Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general,
said that the disaster was the worst he had ever seen and renewed calls for
international aid donations.
The UN has appealed for an inital $460 million to provide relief, but only 20
per cent of the total has so far been pledged. Officials say that billions more
will be needed for reconstruction after flood waters recede.
With more than 20 million people made homeless by the floods, authorities have
been overwhelmed by the scale of disaster, and many have been angered by the
lack of assistance they have received.
Angry protests
In the hard-hit Sukkur area in southern Sindh province, hundreds of flood
victims blocked a major road with stones and rubbish to protest what they
described as a slow delivery of aid.
IN VIDEO
Al Jazeera's Jonah Hull meets a US helicopter crew delivering aid to
flood victims
Kalu Mangiani, one of the protesters, said government officials only came to
hand out food when media were present.
"They are throwing packets of food to us like we are dogs. They are making
people fight for these packets," he said.
Al Jazeera's Imran Khan, reporting from Sukkur, said it was clear that not
enough aid was getting to flood victims.
"Without a co-ordinated effort by the government or aid groups, delivering
supplies becomes a piecemeal effort that falls short of what is needed," he
said.
"The scale of this disaster is overwhelming and the lack of a centralised
effort means good intentions can go to waste."
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------------------
Post message: [email protected]
Subscribe : [email protected]
Unsubscribe : [email protected]
List owner : [email protected]
Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
[email protected]
[email protected]
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[email protected]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
