According to a recent article published on Trust.com’s breaking news section, Alertnet, the recent flooding in many provinces of Pakistan, disease is running rampant. It is a big issue in many provinces, but the Sindh province seems to be one of the hardest hit. Because of the recent flooding in the Sindh province of Pakistan, many of their residents have been left without clean drinking water or sanitation. The only water resource these victims are left with is the stagnant water left over from the flood, which is most often contaminated with human waste and other contaminants. Because of this, disease is running rampant through the affected areas of Pakistan. The diseases are hitting everyone in the country, but it seems that the portion of the population being hit the hardest by this wave of rampant disease is the children of Pakistan. According to the American Lung association, Pneumonia kills upwards of 100,000 people annually since 2000, but that rate is far higher in the affected areas of Pakistan; especially for the children. Pneumonia kills more children under the age of five in Pakistan than any other disease. An initiative is needed to help curb the rising number of cases of pneumonia and various other infectious diseases in these various affected provinces, because the mortality rate is climbing at an increasingly high rate. With clean water initiatives, and some sanitation improvements the issue can begin a turn around, to try and save people from dying from a largely preventable and treatable disease.
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/blogs/photo-blog/children-at-risk-as-killer-diseases-increase-in-flooded-pakistan/
These conditions arose because of unpreparedness in the face of natural disaster. Of course, natural disasters are hard to plan for, but there should be general plans of action put together in case. Had resources been allocated beforehand, a faster response could have been initiated. Governments need to realize that with flooding, comes the lack of utilities, including clean water and sanitation. This carries disease, and so preventing disease from spreading should be of the utmost importance, because getting healthcare is also increasingly difficult.
ReplyDeleteAs we all know, natural disasters are not something human can control. However, we can decrease the damages from the natural disasters by preparing to natural disaster. Because of global warming, there are more chance of unexpected natural disasters to come. Therefore, we need to prepare for the unexpected natural disasters before they hit us and by preparing, we can decrease the damages even though we cannot stop those natural disasters. As in every international health issues preventing the problem is much better and cost effective than doing something after it happened.
ReplyDeleteClean water initiatives and sanitation improvements are imperative (for mere survival even). A natural disaster such as a flood is devastating anywhere but the after-effects are increased 10-fold if it occurs in a developing country – the infrastructure simply isn’t there in the first place to mitigate the effects of a natural disaster. But you are right; at this point what is important is helping them get clean water. The key issue is to start with the basics – give people what they need most.
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