Flood-hit Pakistan moves to avert epidemics

ISLAMABAD - The Pakistani government Tuesday announced emergency measures aimed at averting major outbreaks of cholera and other epidemic diseases in the country’s flooded areas.

A national steering committee, comprising top health official, was set up to monitor the situation on a regular basis, officials said after a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and attended by local and international health officials.

National Health Volunteers groups, comprising some 12,000 post-graduate medical students, would also be set up, Information Minister Qamaruz Zaman Kaira said.

Waterborne diseases like cholera, diarrhea and dysentery were already spreading among the millions staying in relief camps or under the open sky. Malnutrition is further weakening their defence systems.

“As human misery continues to mount, we are seriously concerned with the spread of epidemic diseases,” said Gilani, adding that 2.2 million people were currently receiving medical assistance.

“I can assure the world and my countrymen that together we shall surmount this tremendous challenge with unity, commitment and will to share the sufferings of those who are at risk and are vulnerable,” Gilani told the meeting.

Among the flood victims are more than 3.5 million children and tens of thousands of pregnant women, many of whom have given birth in the relief camps, without receiving any medical assistance.

Some 500,000 women are expected to give birth to babies in the flood affected areas over the next six months.

According to the United Nations, the number of people displaced by the floods has now risen to 17 million as the floods continue to swamp more villages in the southern province of Sindh before pouring into the Indian Ocean.

The floods that started July 28 with heavy monsoon rains have submerged thousands of villages, washed away hundreds of kilometres of roads, dozens of bridges and over 1.7 million acres of crops.

The country’s president, Asif Ali Zardari, warned Monday that it would take at least three years for the country to recover.

Economic growth is predicted to slow to below 3 percent this year, far below pre-flood estimates of 4.25 percent.

Finance officials were holding talks with the International Monetary Fund to revise the terms of the country’s $10-billion loan programme.