Filed under Disasters

Hundreds of thousands of Somalians live in crowded, often unsanitary, camps in Mogadishu; they have moved there to escape famine, drought and insecurity. Now in these camps, they face instances of cholera two to three times greater than last year. Health officials fear cholera could now rapidly spread to the camps’ hundreds of thousands of inhabitants.

IRIN reports:

In Mogadishu’s largest health facility, Banadir Hospital, 4,272 cases of acute watery diarrhoea, a symptom of cholera, have been recorded so far this year, causing 181 deaths. (Random laboratory tests showed that 60 percent of the cases also tested positive for malaria, according to WHO.)

Children under five, weakened by malnutrition, make up three-fourths of the cases…
WHO spokesman Tarek Jasarevic said: “This sudden increase had various reasons. First, the numerous informal settlements of internally displaced persons with makeshift shelters, poor sanitation and limited access to safe water. Second, the limited capacity of existing health partners to access those informal settlements and provide essential health services. And third, the high number of malnourished children due to the ongoing famine increased the susceptibility to waterborne diseases such as acute watery diarrhoea.”

Cholera is an acute intestinal infection caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. It has a short incubation period, from less than one day to five days, and produces an enterotoxin that causes a copious, painless, watery diarrhoea that can quickly lead to severe dehydration and death if treatment is not prompt.

See here for IRIN’s full article.

IRIN offer some interesting articles exploring the impact of the floods in Pakistan.

This first one includes interviews with five families, which give an insight into the disparities in conditions, especially the availability of food, in different regions.

loss of trees before and after the floods in Pakistan.

Firewood and trees were washed away with the floods. As a result, women must sometimes search for up to two hours to find enough- and sufficiently dry- firewood to cook just one meal. Food sources like fruit trees and vegetables have also been destroyed.

It’s thought that previous deforestation in Pakistan exacerbated the damage caused by the floods.

“About 4.1 percent of Pakistan’s land area is forest, according to the government. At current rates of deforestation (2-2.4 percent), forest cover would be down to half of its 1995 extent by 2019-2024″.

See the full article here.