Medical aid: Health Dept has treated 178,000 in flood-hit areas

Teams of doctors and paramedics sent to 18 districts.

LAHORE:

Health Department teams have provided medical treatment to 178,000 people in the flood-hit areas of the Punjab.

“On the instructions of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, medical teams of the Health Department have been providing treatment facilities to the people of flood-affected areas and up till now 178,000 patients have been treated,” a Health Department spokesman said.

He said that 264 union councils in 18 districts had been affected by the floods, and 312 stationary teams and 142 mobile medical teams were providing medical treatment to people there. “These teams have saved the lives of 106 snake-bite patients by administering anti-venom injections,” he added.

The medical teams are vaccinating children against seasonal diseases and pregnant women against tetanus, he said.

The most common illnesses the medical teams have treated include gastroenteritis, fever, skin infections and respiratory and chest infections.

The Health Department spokesman said that Health Secretary Hassan Iqbal had spent 10 days at his camp office in Muzaffargarh and personally monitored relief activities for flood victims. Special Health Secretary Babar Hayat Tarar is doing the same in Narowal, he added.

The medical teams have been sent to DG Khan, Layyah, Rajanpur, Muzaffargarh, Gujranwala, Mandi Bahauddin, Sialkot, Hafizabad, Narowal, Kasur, Sheikhupura, Nankana Sahib, Multan, Sargodha, Jhang, Chiniot, Vehari and Rahim Yar Khan.

“It is feared that skin diseases and stomach-related problems may affect many patients in the calamity-hit areas so medical treatment is being provided on the spot. The medical teams will keep providing medical aid in the flood-hit areas till the flood water recedes,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 26^th, 2013.