There is a growing threat that diseases including typhoid, cholera and tuberculosis will spread in northern Pakistan. Hundreds of thousands of displaced people are living in cramped, unhygienic conditions after fleeing the conflict
Tuesday 26 May 2009
Anna Ford, Save the Children spokesperson in Islamabad, describes the situation of children displaced by the fighting in the North of Pakistan.
In some areas, up to five hundred people are sharing just two toilets, and open defecation is common.
More than 80% of the children we're treating have either diarrhoea, dysentery, respiratory infections, or scabies – with the youngest children just days old.
Our doctors fear they will soon see cases of typhoid, cholera, measles and tuberculosis – which can be fatal in children if left untreated.
They also expect to see an increase in insect-borne diseases like malaria, and warn that the monsoon next month will only exacerbate the health problems.
Anna Ford, Save the Children spokesperson, who is in Pakistan, said: “Families have had to run for their lives after witnessing the horrors of war and are now living in cramped, unhygienic conditions, often with strangers. In some houses, up to 70 people are living in two rooms. If a child catches a disease it is virtually inevitable that every child they are living with will catch it too.
“Save the Children staff have seen children playing in pools of dirty water swarming with flies and others who have been wearing the same torn, dirty clothes for weeks, and have now caught scabies.
“It is not culturally acceptable for women to wash near to men and many women and girls have not washed since they fled their homes up to a month ago because facilities in some camps and host communities are in very close proximity.”
More than 50% of basic public health clinics in the conflict zone have either been destroyed or turned into make-shift camps for displaced families.
Although some are still operational, because people are unfamiliar with where they are staying, they do not know where to go for treatment.
Anna added: “We are giving vital aid to tens of thousands of displaced people and our mobile clinics travel for up to four hours a day to treat people living in remote villages. We are constantly recruiting new doctors and are giving displaced families information to people about how to limit the spread of disease and where to go for treatment.”
Some 2.3 million people have fled the conflict in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province since August 2008, including 1.7 million in the last few weeks, according to the UN – 60% of whom are children.
Although camps have been set up to house some of the displaced, more than 80% are living with host families. We're focusing our efforts on supporting these families, in particular those living in remote villages which few other agencies are able to reach.
Diarrhoea is one of the most common killers of newborn babies in Pakistan, where 78 children in every 1,000 die before they reach their fifth birthday.
We need your help to save children's lives in the desperate conditions of northern Pakistan. Please donate now.
What your money will buy:
- 50p will buy story books for children.
- £3 will pay for a course of antibiotics for a child under five.
- £8 will pay for a mosquito net for a mother and child.
- £10 will pay for a woman to have her baby delivered at a public health clinic.
- £500 will pay for a livelihood cash grant for a family
For more interviews, case studies or photos please call Anna Ford in Islamabad on 0044(0)7795450607 or 0092 (0) 301 8548121 or email a.ford@savethechildren.org.uk. A Save the Children press officer is available 24 hours a day on 0044 (0)7831 650409.