U.S., International Aid Helps Fight Disease in Pakistan Floods
Washington â€" Waterborne and other infectious diseases threaten more than 15 million people in Pakistan, where the July-September monsoon season has already produced floodwaters that have killed at least 1,500 people, left an estimated 20 million homeless and now cover a fifth of the country.
(Media-Newswire.com) - Washington — Waterborne and other infectious diseases threaten more than 15 million people in Pakistan, where the July-September monsoon season has already produced floodwaters that have killed at least 1,500 people, left an estimated 20 million homeless and now cover a fifth of the country.
The United States, whose donations to Pakistan so far total about $90 million, is a prime donor to the World Health Organization ( WHO ), the United Nations Children’s Fund ( UNICEF ) and other U.N. partners. They, along with international organizations, companies and individuals around the world, are contributing to desperate efforts to make sure populations have water and food and stay free of disease.
“The United States has a history of working with the government of Pakistan to respond to natural disasters,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said August 4 from Washington, describing the U.S. response to that country’s natural disaster.
“We’ve been working hard over the past year to build a partnership with the people of Pakistan,” she added, “and this is an essential element of that partnership; reaching out and helping each other in times of need.”
At the briefing, Dr. Rajiv Shah, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development ( USAID ), outlined the work of his agency to help national disaster authorities and provide food and water for Pakistan’s flood assistance.
“We believe the establishment of a disease early warning system to track and make sure that we do not have subsequent public health diseases that spread in this critical time period is important as part of an effort to protect the Pakistani people,” Shah added.
HEALTH IN ACTION
In flood-affected communities, the leading causes of illness are skin infections, watery diarrhea and respiratory infections. Between July 29, when the floods began, and August 12, WHO and mobile and stationary medical centers partnering with the organization reported treating 143,870 skin infections, 115,922 cases of acute diarrhea and 113,981 respiratory tract infections.
Through WHO, essential medicines and supplies were distributed to Pakistan’s Ministry of Health and WHO partners to cover the health needs of 1.8 million people. Supplies included 179 emergency health kits, 700 vials of anti-snake venom, 1.8 million water purification tablets and 152 cholera-treatment kits.
Cholera is a diarrheal illness caused by infection of the intestine with the waterborne bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The infection is often mild or without symptoms but it can be severe, with profuse watery diarrhea, vomiting and leg cramps. The disease can spread through contact with feces. Rapid loss of body fluids leads to dehydration and shock.
“We urgently need to scale up the distribution of water,” Martin Mogwanja, UNICEF’s representative in Pakistan, said in an August 17 statement. “If we are not able to do so because of lack of funding, water-borne diseases such as cholera, diarrhea and dysentery will spread and begin killing affected populations, especially children, already weak and vulnerable to disease and malnutrition.”
He said UNICEF was providing enough clean water to an estimated 1.3 million people every day, but millions more remained in need. USAID has also provided shelter materials, emergency food supplies and preventive medical care to curb potential disease outbreaks.
Polio and measles are also threats to children’s health in Pakistan, according to UNICEF, which is working with WHO and the government to carry out vaccinations against the diseases in relief centers. UNICEF is supplying oral rehydration salts, a home-based diarrhea treatment, but funding constraints mean that supplies are limited.
MONITORING AND TREATMENT
Through the USAID Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance, the United States has provided $3 million to WHO to expand Pakistan’s Disease Early Warning System, called DEWS nationwide, and to establish the first 15 treatment centers for waterborne illness, located in high-risk flood-affected areas.
"The centers,” Ambassador Anne Patterson said August 13, “will diagnose and treat illness and will be staffed with trained international and local health workers."
Monitoring for waterborne diseases after a flood is the task of Pakistan’s disease early warning system, a network of health care providers to which the United States has been contributing since 2008.
On August 9, 56 of 62 flood-affected districts in four provinces provided daily disease surveillance data to DEWS, allowing health workers to monitor reports of illness. To help curb the spread of illness, the United States is distributing hand soap and has provided mobile water-treatment units that can provide clean drinking water for 10,000 people a day.
The United States also is working with the humanitarian community to promote health and hygiene messages in some of the most affected areas. The messages, which include advice on preventing waterborne diseases through proper hand-washing, are being broadcast on radio stations and reinforced by hygiene workers who are going door to door in affected areas.
WHO and its international partners are responding to multiple health threats, including waterborne diseases such as cholera and vector-borne diseases such as malaria, and delivering health care and medicines after floods destroyed more than 200 hospitals and clinics throughout Pakistan.
More about the U.S. response to Pakistan’s flooding is available on the State Department website.
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This story was released on 2010-08-19. Please make sure to visit the official company or organization web site to learn more about the original release date. See our disclaimer for additional information.