BARDIA, Sept 3 - The deluge that hit the Bardia region hard claimed another life, a 4-day-old neonate, on Sunday following two deaths yesterday.
According to the District Health Office (DHO), Bardia, the deceased is a child of Hira Tharu of Sangharsha Nagar, Rajapur.
The DHO also said that the infant was suffering from pneumonia and died today owing to the lack of immediate treatment.
Though the residents of Bardia heaved a sigh of relief for some time as the floods gradually subsided, they now face the threat of epidemic outbreaks that normally follow in flood-hit areas. The residents are already suffering from different kinds of diseases such as diarrhoea, typhoid, viral hepatitis, malaria, eye infections, etc.
Those who have reached there with relief aid said that more and more people could fall victim to such epidemics if treatment and precautionary measures were not availed to these flood-victims immediately.
Till Saturday evening, more than 2000 flood-victims had been diagnosed with different communicable diseases.
The flood-hit Bardia region does not only suffer from the lack of medicines but is also deprived of qualified health care providers. The DHO where five doctors should be on duty has only one working at present.
The deluge caused by incessant torrential downpour swamped 22 VDCs out of the 31 VDCs in the district, and a municipality last week.
According to a survey, there are around 50,000 flood victims in Bardia district alone.
The UN system in Nepal has also urged that the flood victims there need urgent humanitarian assistance and protection from outbreaks of disease. "People urgently need basic shelter, food, clothes, water and medicines," UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Nepal Matthew Kahane said in a statement issued late on Friday.
He also urged officials to step up monitoring for the outbreak of diseases such as diarrhoea, typhoid, viral hepatitis and malaria.
Source:
eKantipur
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