Post monsoon, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa saw an increase in the number of people diagnosed with acute watery diarrhoea. A condition caused by unclean drinking water, poor sanitation, and poor hygiene conditions. In response to the growing number of cases, the teams from the international medical organisation Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and the Ministry of Health set up temporary centres in Timergara, Hangu and Sadda.
Some 2,840 patients received treatment since the monsoon season began in July. "Although acute watery diarrhoea is an easily treatable disease," says MSF medical co-ordinator Dr Jacob Maikere, "it can spread quickly, so prevention is as important as treatment. Access to improved sanitation facilities and clean water are vital to mitigate the spread of waterborne diseases like this."
In Timergara, 1,786 patients have been treated at the District Headquarter hospital, more than a quarter of them children under the age of five. Some 1,054 patients, one-third of them children under five, have been treated at a 20-bed treatment centre in Tehsil Headquarter hospital in Hangu.
In addition; in response to the increase in patient load in the mother - and - child health department (MCH) at the District Headquarter hospital in Timergara, MSF is building a brand new extension to its existing facility that will open early November. MSF has been supporting the casualty department of Timergara District Headquarter hospital - including the resuscitation room, observation rooms and emergency operating theatre - since 2009. Some 1,200 patients receive treatment each week in the hospital's emergency room, from both MSF and Ministry of Health medical teams, and some 100 surgeries are conducted each month in the operating theatre. MSF also supports the mother-and-child health department, provides mental health counselling and health promotion activities, and supervises sterilisation facilities, waste management, and the hospital's blood bank.
Since 1986, MSF has been working in Pakistan with Pakistani communities and Afghan refugees who are victims of armed conflict and natural disasters or who lack access to medical care. MSF teams are currently providing free emergency medical care in Kurram Agency (Fata), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, and Sindh provinces.
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