Flood victims at risk of malaria and diarrhoea

With 1,500 deaths already confirmed by devastating floods across the country, more lives at risk as stagnant water and lack of safe drinking water pose a potential risk of spreading skin diseases, diarrhoea-and-cholera-related diseases, as well as epidemics like measles among the children, a Ministry of Health spokesman said while updating on the healthcare situation created by the floods. To support the provincial health departments in coping with the challenge, medical hubs are being created by the federal Health Ministry in various points in southern Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh, including Nowshera, Sukkur and Multan.  A Health Ministry Relief Office is being set up in Multan at the EDO Health Office, the spokesman said. To deal with the challenge in terms of medical emergency in South Punjab, a health cluster has been established there by Health Minister Makhdoom Shahabuddin and the World Health Organisation chief in Pakistan, Dr Sabbatenelli, who visited southern Punjab to supervise the flood relief effort. The health cluster, including the federal Health Ministry and all development partners, would be working closely with the Punjab Health Department and local health authorities to strengthen healthcare response in southern Punjab that has been badly hit by the unprecedented floods in the country. The federal health minister on Thursday handed over six mobile medical teams consisting, fully equipped with necessary supplies, to the Punjab Health authorities in Multan. The teams have been deployed at Muzzafargarh, Rajanpur and Layyah, the spokesman said. The mobile teams will be re-stocked and refuelled from a base set up in Multan by the federal Health Ministry and the WHO. Meanwhile, assistance from the world keeps pouring in to mitigate the sufferings of the affected people. On Thursday, another planeload of medical supplies and relief items arrived from Saudi Arabia.