UN says Bangladesh is ripe for major disease outbreaks as a result of floods

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 08 Aug 2004 - 16:00 PST

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UNICEF says that Bangladesh is ripe for major disease outbreaks as a result of the recent devastating floods that have hit the country. Diseases such as diarrhea are particularly worrying, as are other water borne diseases.

These are the worst floods to hit the country since 1998, says the government of Bangladesh. Over 1.5 million people are still living in shelters - about 700 people, at least, are thought to have died from the floods. The Bangladeshi government says about 30 million people have been badly affected by the monsoon.

40% of the country is still under water - this should improve as water levels continue to fall.

The problem with receding water, said Marc Vergara, UNICEF, is that the remaining water is unsafe, especially for drinking. He added "Basically the water is polluted in such a way that it affects immediately the health of, especially children in water-borne diseases like dysentery, diarrhea, maybe the risk of cholera as well. Even polio. And, also acute respiratory infections and skin infections."

He said UNIFEC is reporting 10,000 cases of diarrhea a day. He urged people and organisations to help as the local agencies cannot cope.

UNICEF has just 5 million water purification tablets, it is getting another 5 million. However, the country needs 60 million now, says UNICEF.

As hundreds of thousands of people are going to need help over the near future, UNICEF is appealing for help. It will take at least one year to get things back to how they were before the floods, said the UNICEF spokesman.

It is not that the economy has slumped, it has just stopped. People cannot commute or get to school, deliveries of any kind of supplies - food, medicines, clothing, fuel are just not getting through.