Health minister rules out epidemic threat

Minister says 145,724 flood survivors suffering from different diseases,106 people lost their lives.

QUETTA: Provincial Health Minister Ainullah Shams on Saturday ruled out any threat of a fresh outbreak of epidemics in the flood-stricken districts of Balochistan. Currently, the minister said, 145,724 flood survivors were suffering from different diseases. Though 106 people had lost their lives so far, the recovery rate was still good, according to him.

The minister told a press conference that the performance of the provincial health department in the aftermath of the floods was satisfactory. “The provincial health department is working beyond its capacity. The health workers are registering people who have not been registered by the local governments and providing them medical facilities,” he said.

He said that the department did not rely on the local administration and was providing medical facilities to survivors who were forced to live out in the open. “Medical camps have been set up in all shelters and so far the department has distributed medicines worth Rs15 million in eight districts of the province,” he said.

Shams said that the situation is under control, with no threat to the lives of the survivors. The efforts made by the department can be gauged by the fact that the death toll is merely 106 and thousands of people have recovered from diseases. “The health workers are making all out efforts to reach each and every person, including those who are staying with their relatives or living out in the open,” said Shams.

Responding to a query, he refuted that there is any shortage of medicines in Balochistan and said, “We have sufficient medicines as well as the capacity to provide them to the 1.1 million survivors in Balochistan.” The claims made by NGOs about the deficiency of health department are merely propaganda, he added.

Shams said that all resources and medicines had been provided to the army by the health department.

Some 785,769 people have been affected by the recent floods in Jhal Magsi, Jaffarabad, Kohlu, Barkhan, Naseerabad, Bolan and Sibi districts, where the health department has set up 130 health care centers and 33 medical camps.

The World Health Organisation has also provided medicines and medical kits. Some 145,724 survivors are suffering from diarrhoea, skin infections, malaria, snakebite and other water-borne diseases.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 19^th, 2010.