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Ashfaq Yusufzai
August 28, 2022
PESHAWAR: The health department has established camps to provide emergency health relief to people in flood-hit districts amid calls by medics for the provision of clean drinking water, essential medicines and proper shelter to the disaster victims to prevent the outbreak of diseases caused by the use of contaminated water and foods.
Prof Khalid Mahmood, a former physician at the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) Peshawar, told Dawn that the flood-hit areas were vulnerable to the spread of cholera, typhoid, leptospirosis, hepatitis A and E, malaria, dengue fever and snake bites.
“Lack of access to safe drinking water, improper sanitation, over crowded camps and scarcity of health care services has a compounding effect after floodwater recedes. The flood also affects the food supply chain negatively leading to malnutrition and stunted growth in children,” he said.
According to Prof Mahmood, the natural disasters cannot be prevented but their impacts can be mitigated by ensuring provision of reasonable cover/housing, uninterrupted safe drinking water, nutritious and hygienic food, controlling disease vector like mosquitoes, vaccination and snake-bite prevention measures.
Health dept sets up camps to offer emergency care
CEO of the Health Net Hospital Prof Syed Amjad Taqweem said the people in the calamity-hit areas were at the risk of being bitten by animals and reptiles.
He said evacuation of patients also increased disease burden in addition to loss of health workers, infrastructure and essential drugs and supplies, so immediate steps should be taken to prevent the spread of diseases among vulnerable people.
Prof Amjad said an increase in food and water-borne diseases such as diarrhea, dysentery, food poisoning, typhoid fever, cholera, leptospirosis and hepatitis A and E was common in flood victims.
He said vector-borne diseases, such as malaria, and dengue hemorrhagic fever could be controlled by sheltering them properly tents with availability of clean water, dry food, plastic shoes and other materials to remain intact in water.