Around 5 mn people may fall sick in flood-hit Pak in coming weeks: Experts
Around five million people in flood-hit Pakistan, including children, may fall sick due to the outbreak of water-borne and vector-borne diseases such as typhoid and diarrhea in the next four to 12 weeks, health experts have warned.
Floods triggered by unprecedented monsoon rains have caused widespread havoc across Pakistan, killing over 1,100 people so far and destroying farmlands. Those who survived nature's fury are facing health issues, the News International reported.
As the condition stays grim, health officials said that people in the flooded areas of Sindh, Balochistan, southern Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are likely to get diarrhea, cholera, gastroenteritis, typhoid and vector-borne diseases like dengue and malaria.
It is estimated that a disease outbreak would initially require medicines and medical supplies worth Rs 1 billion, they said, and urged donors, philanthropists and common people to donate these after consulting health experts and officials of rescue and welfare