Sindh flood victims face epidemic: NDMA

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) appealed to the national and international organisations to help it save human lives as various diseases have affected the flood-hit areas in Sindh, killing 54. The condition of thousands of other people is in serious.NDMA spokesman Irshad Bhatti said due to various water-borne diseases conditions of thousands of patients is serious, while 54 of them have lost lives.He said that out of the total 85,404 malaria-infected people, condition of 1,660 patients was reported serious.He said that besides the malaria patients, 71,857 people are suffering from breathing problems due to various infections and 35,300 are diarrhea patients, while 13,843 are blood diarrhea patients.At least 59,763 of the flood-hit people are suffering from various skin diseases and 16,509 have contacted eye diseases, he added.He said that 520 people in the area were bitten by snakes and the patients are under treatment. To a question, he said that these are the cases that were reported and there may be more cases not on record. He said that NDMA has information that thousands of the patients are in serious conditions.It is the time for national and international organisations to help the government of Pakistan and NDMA. He warned any delay can turn the situation into a painful tragedy in the flood-hit Sindh. On behalf of the chairman NDMA, he also called upon the Pakistanis to come forward for helping their brethren.He said that the situation in the flood-hit areas is alarming and now the NDMA alone cannot tackle the situation while resources of the provincial government are also limited for the highly disastrous situation.