Flood victims hit by disease outbreak as Pakistan faces its ‘toughest times’

• Skin infections, diarrhoea, malaria are spreading rapidly in flooded areas.
• Diseases have claimed 324 lives. The floods killed 1,569 people.
• Millions of people were displaced by the floods.

KARACHI: Skin infections, diarrhea and malaria are spreading rapidly in parts of Pakistan’s flood-hit areas, killing 324 people, officials said on Wednesday, as the country’s prime minister said it was Going through the “hardest period”.

Millions of people displaced by the floods are living in the open, and because the floodwaters – spread over hundreds of kilometers – can take two to six months to recede, the standing water Serious health problems.

Already with Pakistan A weak health system And lacking aid, displaced families have complained that they are forced to cook and drink contaminated water. Officials have also warned that the situation could spiral out of control if necessary aid does not arrive.

“We know it can make us sick, but what can we do, we have to drink it to survive,” flood victim Ghulam Rasool told locals. Geo News TV As he stood near where his house was washed away in southern Pakistan.

After visiting several flooded areas, Mercy Corps Country Director for Pakistan, Dr. Farah Noreen, said aid was slow to arrive.

“We need to act in a coordinated manner to respond to their urgent needs,” he said in a statement late Monday, prioritizing clean drinking water. He said that health and nutrition stand out as the most important needs of the homeless population.

The southern Sindh provincial government said on Wednesday that more than 78,000 patients were treated in makeshift health facilities and mobile camps in flood-hit areas in the past 24 hours, and more than 2 million since July 1.

Six of them died, he said.

Deaths from Diseases The country’s disaster management agency said on Wednesday that they were not among the 1,569 people who died in the flash floods, including 555 children and 320 women.

A historic and intense monsoon dumped nearly three times more rain on Pakistan than the three-decade average, which combined with snowmelt to cause unprecedented flooding.

The floods have affected about 33 million people in the South Asian country of 220 million, washing away homes, crops, bridges, roads and streets. Livestock In losses Estimated at $30 billion..

Authorities are warning that they are now risking a serious outbreak of the infection, which the World Health Organization (WHO) has described as “absolutely heartbreaking”.

Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif said in a televised address on the occasion of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) that he reviewed the flood situation.

In the light of the briefing given to the Prime Minister, he said that it is essential to donate nutrition packs for those children who are not getting enough food due to the disaster.

“Pakistan is facing its most difficult time. The devastation in Pakistan is visible to the whole world,” the Prime Minister said.