Fears of an epidemic stalked flood-hit regions of South Asia on Saturday, with thousands of sick people flocking hospitals as rivers receded.
Officials said nearly 7,000 people reported at hospitals with diarrhoea and other water-borne diseases on Friday in Bangladesh, which has been worst hit by this year's monsoon flooding in the subcontinent that has claimed about 1,300 in the last one month.
"Never before had I seen such devastation, especially in terms of scarcity of drinking water and dry food," said Ferdousi Begum in the capital Dhaka's Bashabo area, which is under filthy, waist-deep water.
Residents said the water was filled with garbage, including human excreta, dead poultry and rodents. "I found it impossible to live there. So I fled the area with my only son," Begum said.
Zamirul Haq, another Dhaka resident, said life had become a constant struggle.
"The stink and filth have made breathing difficult," Haq told Reuters. "Only Allah knows when he would relieve us from this."
Officials said the flood situation was likely to improve across Bangladesh over the next one week before another spell of heavy rain is forecast to lash the country.
Hospitals and temporary medical centres in flood-ravaged districts said they had treated more than 100,000 patients over the last three weeks, but most deaths due to diarrhoea took place in remote areas that remained cut off by road and rail. Doctors at Dhaka's International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research said they had treated about 10,000 patients in the past week and on an average about 500 new patients were being admitted everyday.
"With the recession of floods we are expecting more patients," said Shahadat Hossain, a doctor at the centre.
Comments
Comments are closed.