Disease threatens 6 million Pakistani children

A flood-affected Pakistani child


Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=138503§ionid=351020401


Aid agencies warn that at least six million children are at risk of diarrheal diseases, malnutrition and pneumonia following the devastating floods in Pakistan.

Save the Children's spokesman in Islamabad, Mohammed Qazilbash, said outbreaks of cholera and malaria are the biggest concern.

''In southern Punjab and Sindh, there are vast numbers of people living right along the water, some in makeshift houses with very poor hygiene and sanitation," he added.

''Children are drinking, washing in and going to the toilet in the same river water. If this sanitation crisis is not tackled now, in six months' time, millions and millions of children will be suffering potentially deadly diarrhea and other diseases," Qazilbash said.

As the figures continue to rise, UNICEF says that 6 million children have been affected by the floods in Pakistan with some 2.7 million children in need of urgent, lifesaving assistance.

"This is the biggest natural disaster to hit Pakistan and this region in living memory, bigger than the Tsunami or the earthquake, with millions of children and women struggling to survive in dire conditions," the United Nations International Children's Fund said earlier this week.

Meanwhile, doctors working in northern areas of Punjab and the Swat Valley have reported that children living in displacement camps have been affected by outbreaks of measles.

The head of emergencies for the British aid agency, World Vision, Mark Bulpitt, said, "as we continue to reach those most affected by this flood, we must also focus on the longer-term recovery, prioritizing livelihoods and education to ensure more of Pakistan's children do not become victims of child labor."

“Schools have been washed away so education will need to be prioritized, houses and health centers are unusable and then there is the emotional fallout of living through a disaster as devastating as this one," Bulpitt added.

Pakistan's deadliest floods in decades have killed more than 1,500 people and exhausted government efforts to provide aid to the flood-ravaged regions.