A Second Disaster Might Hit Flood-Affected Pakistan- WHO
by Naba Batool
SHARES
According to the latest reports of WHO, the international agency is raising concerns about a potential “second disaster” in Pakistan. The flood situation in Pakistan is getting out of hand and the country is on the verge of increased cases of water-borne diseases.
WHO’s director General Tedros Adhanom in a statement on Twitter asked for donations and said the general public to “save lives and prevent more suffering” to prevent the “wave of diseases and deaths”.
The consumption of contaminated water is considered to be the major contributing factor that might lead to a surge of water-borne diseases and increased hospitalizations in the flood-hit regions of Pakistan. The main diseases are cholera, malaria, dengue, and diarrhea. Pakistan is already struggling with dengue resurgence with almost 200+ active cases in the main cities such as Lahore, Karachi, and Quetta.
Tedros wrote on Twitter that “Health centers have been flooded, their supplies damaged, and people have moved away from home, which makes it harder for them to access their normal health services. All this means more unsafe births, more untreated diabetes or heart disease, and more children missing vaccination, to name but a few of the impacts on health.”
Furthermore, he also raised concerns about the swift action that is needed to cater to the disastrous situation to some extent in Pakistan. “Health workers in Pakistan are stretched to the limit as they do all they can to deliver critical services amid the destruction”. The International Health regulatory body has been on the front end since the floods and has recently provided water purification and oral rehydration salts to tackle diarrhea to some extent.
WHO immediately released $10 million from the WHO Contingency Fund for Emergencies which enabled us to deliver essential medicines and other supplies to the country,” said Tedros.
