Child dies of gastroenteritis in Karachi camp

Due to the provision of substandard health facilities, fatal diseases, such as cholera and typhoid, can spread.

KARACHI: Children are dying of waterborne diseases at relief camps almost every day and the incidence of such diseases is likely to increase in the near future.

Due to the provision of substandard health facilities at these camps, fatal diseases, such as cholera and typhoid, can spread among survivors.

Three-year-old Farzana, daughter of Muhammad Ali, became the most recent victim of gastroenteritis at the relief camp in Gulshan-e-Maymer. According to Edhi officials, she died late Sunday and was buried at the Mewashah graveyard.

However, Khalil Ahmed Ansari, the town health officer of Gadap, denied the death and claimed that it was just a rumour.

The authorities may be turning a blind eye to such cases, but international donor agencies have realised the threat of fatal diseases. Dr Asif Aslam, Unicef’s health and nutrition expert, said that pneumonia, diarrhea and skin diseases are likely to become common and the threat can only be removed if there is efficient distribution of medicines and food.

“We not only need more donations in the form of medicines and food but we also need trained staff,” he explained. “Contagious diseases can spread due to overcrowding and improper waste disposal,” he added.

Sindh Health Minister Dr Sagheer Ahmed also agreed that there is an imminent threat of fatal diseases. “We are expecting an increase in cases of cholera and typhoid,” he said.

However, the government lacks vaccines for these diseases. “We did not store vaccines for cholera and typhoid because there was no need,” he explained, adding that now the government is trying to import the vaccines.

According to the health minister, there is a state of emergency in 23 districts of Sindh, besides Karachi. There are 490 camps and 124 mobile teams in the entire province but there is a need to establish coordination between the government, the armed forces, welfare organisations and NGOs.

Medical experts believe that flood survivors must be located to areas where they have access to items of daily use. Lady health workers should also be appointed to being a positive change in the lives of the survivors.

Pneumonia most common among survivors

Medical teams of the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplant (SIUT) have identified pneumonia as the most common ailment among children exposed to floods. The teams have treated more than 35,000 survivors and displaced persons at its six medical relief camps all over Pakistan. Around 50 per cent of the patients were children and most of them had pneumonia. Other diseases encountered were gastroenteritis, skin diseases, malaria, snake and scorpion bites and heat stroke.

Additional input from PPI

Published in The Express Tribune, August 24^th, 2010.