Millions of Children in Pakistan at Risk of Disease

The United Nations reports as many as 3.5 million children in flood-stricken Pakistan risk falling ill from waterborne diseases.  A United Nations spokesman in Pakistan says children in emergency situations are particularly vulnerable to deadly diseases such as acute watery diarrhea and dysentery. Pakistani authorities estimate the devastating floods are affecting 20 million people.  Of these, the United Nations says at least six million are in need of emergency life-saving assistance. A spokesman for the World Health Organization, Paul Garwood, tells VOA dangerous waterborne diseases thrive in the kind of unsanitary, overcrowded conditions in which people are living.  "When there is excess amounts of unclean water in communities where people live, where people have limited access to safe, clean drinking water and have bad sanitation conditions, where maybe there are many people living in congested settings, the risk of the spread of water borne diseases like acute watery diarrhea increases," Garwood said. Garwood says anyone can fall ill, but children, as well as women and the elderly are most vulnerable.   He says WHO has reports of thousands of cases of acute watery diarrhea in flood-stricken Pakistan.