WHO fears almost three million cases of malaria in Pakistan due to floods

MADRID, 9 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The World Health Organization (WHO) fears that the catastrophic floods in Pakistan will lead to almost three million cases of malaria by January next year due to exploding outbreaks of waterborne diseases.

Dr. Palitha Mahipala, WHO representative in the Asian country, has asked the international community to make an effort to prevent as far as possible this very serious scenario that could affect states throughout the country, in an interview with the newspaper 'The News' collected in turn by the GEO TV network.

The death toll from this season's devastating monsoon rains and floods in Pakistan since mid-June has risen to 1,700 with 12,867 injured, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said in its latest update released on Friday. .

According to the NDMA, 632 children and 340 women were among those who lost their lives in separate rain- or flood-related accidents across the country, reported by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

The UN agency also estimates that approximately 520,000 children in the country suffer from severe acute malnutrition and need immediate treatment in a country where, before this tragedy, the average rate of stunting of children under five years of age it was already 50 percent in the affected districts.

The organization also regrets that damage to water supply systems and sanitation facilities has left 5.5 million people without access to drinking water, the main cause of the outbreak of diseases such as cholera or the virus itself. malaria.

In the midst of this catastrophe, Mahipala has warned that the situation will be especially serious in Sindh and Balochistan, which account for the vast majority of cases detected so far and will increase exponentially in the coming months. Of the two million cases expected in December, they could rise to almost three by the beginning of the following month.

"Local governments are doing a good job but they need governments and the international community. The scale of the disaster is huge and the second wave of disasters has started in the form of disease outbreaks," he warned.