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UNICEF alarmed by outbreak of respiratory diseases in flood zones

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Floods in Bangladesh that have killed nearly 600 people have also left an “exceptionally high” number of people suffering from pneumonia and other acute respiratory infections, UNICEF said Tuesday.

Floods in Bangladesh that have killed nearly 600 people have also left an “exceptionally high” number of people suffering from pneumonia and other acute respiratory infections, UNICEF said Tuesday.Relief workers have reported over 550 cases of pneumonia and other acute respiratory infections, one of the biggest and fastest killers of Bangladeshi children, in camps in eastern Brahmanbaria district alone, UNICEF’s communications chief Naseem Ur Rehman told AFP.The UN children’s fund launched an appeal Monday for 13.4 million dollars to supply emergency relief and medical help to women and children in flood-hit districts where many are also suffering from diarrhoea.”We do not know about other districts or about those outside the camps in Brahmanbaria but we have to assume the situation is grave and calls for urgent action,” Rehman said.”This (number) is at least four times the number we would expect and a level that literally sends a shudder down the spine of healthcare professionals which is why we have to move fast with this appeal,” he added.The Bangladeshi government, which has appealed for international help to cope with the devastation caused by the floods, has estimated the flooding has caused damage totalling 6.6 billion dollars to property and infrastructure.USAID, the US government agency for international development, has pledged 960,000 dollars for post-flood aid in addition to previous donations of 60,000 earmarked for immediate relief, the official news agency BSS said.Since July 10, at least 589 people have died in the floods that at their height swamped two-thirds of the country and left 30 million people marooned or homeless.The flooding, now slowly receding in most areas of the country, was the heaviest since Bangladesh’s worst-ever floods of 1998 that killed more than 700 and left 21 million homeless.Experts and aid agencies, however, have warned that Bangladesh is still at the start of the monsoon season and more rains could cause a major humanitarian crisis.(Source: UNICEF, August 2004)


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Dates

Posted On: 8 August, 2004
Modified On: 5 December, 2013

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