Health dept working round the clock in flood zones

Reports suggest that health workers have successfully dealt with most epidemics.

Epidemics are considered an inevitable and unavoidable consequence of any natural calamity or disaster that befalls vast area. The recent ferocious floods which have affected over 20 million people in Pakistan pose several challenges for the government as well as medical experts.

The most pressing challenge involves maintenance and promotion of health in flood zones as thousands have been infected with gastroenteritis.  Although there have been complaints regarding shelter and food most flood victims have protested against the healthcare arrangements made by the government. “The performance of health departments in flood zones has been exemplary but naturally it is impossible to treat all the flood victims,” said Muzaffargarh executive district officer (Health) Dr Muhammad Saeed Amir. Amir said that health officials had worked tirelessly to curb spreading epidemics such as malaria, gastroenteritis, cholera, allergy disorders and other complications in all districts of Punjab. “There are still minor complaints about scabies, gastroenteritis and vomiting but overall the situation is under control,” he said. Amir said that the government had focused properly on health issues and had devised a successful strategy. “We are now dealing with the aftermath and several teams of army doctors have begun to set up medical camps in the affected zones,” said Adeel Shah, a resident doctor at CMH Lahore.

In collaboration with the private health sector, thousands of medical teams have been dispatched to provide free medical aid in flooded areas. Medical practitioners have provided vaccinations to the general public and veterinary doctors have immunized cattle against different diseases. Besides offering medical cover to flood victims, the health department is working to ensure that precautionary measures are taken to guard against the cholera epidemic. The health department recently engaged 10 fogging machines and 10 mounted vehicles for fumigation in flooded areas of Dera Ghazi Khan.      In addition to this, hundreds of manual spray machines were also provided for fumigation.

According to EDO Amir, the district administration engaged 80 medical teams in flooded areas and treated 609,180 patients. Amir stated that health teams had encountered 111,220 cases of gastroenteritis, 123,245 cases of skin diseases, 95,574 cases of chest infection, 51,234 cases of eye infection, 5,001 malaria cases and others minor cases in their examinations during the last two months in most flood zones. Regarding minor but frequent complaints of scabies and gastroenteritis, renowned skin specialist Dr Fazeelat said that limited cases of scabies and other minor complications in the areas would end soon as the upcoming winter season would help control these problems automatically.

The health department teams also ensured that over 92 percent of flooded areas were sprayed at least four times. Health workers said that teams were still performing spraying activities in many flooded areas.     International health teams including the World Health Organization, Unicef, Rabta Aalam-e-Islami (Makkah), Muslim Aid, MERLIN (United Kingdom), MSF (France), ADRA (UK), Islamic Help (UK) and teams from  Germany, Japan, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Australia also participated in providing healthcare services in flood hit areas.

Health teams of the Pakistan Army have been tirelessly working to provide local access to free healthcare for the flood affected people. The Pakistan Army has set up over 40 medical camps and each camp examines 4,000 to 5,000 a week. The army teams have also vaccinated 6.5 million cattle in Southern Punjab. Private sector hospitals have also assisted health officials in offering treatment facilities to the flood affected people.      Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (PIMA), Famid Foundation, and scores of other local NGOs, volunteers and paramedics have also worked with health teams and pharmaceutical companies have offered large quantities of free medicines.

A medical official from Punjab Rangers disclosed that pharmaceutical companies were offering medicines in massive quantities, adding that Mediceena, a Lahore based pharmaceutical company, had offered medicines worth Rs 20 millions.

The labs of eight medical colleges in Punjab have been assisting medical teams in the field and most labs have managed tests facilities on a priority basis. Federal Health Minister Mukhdoom Shahabuddin recently appreciated performance of health officials belonging to Punjab in helping control major epidemics in flood zones.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 2^nd, 2010.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: November 11, 2010

The original article incorrectly stated that the NGO MERLIN was based in Australia. This has been corrected to read 'United Kingdom'.