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Spread
Of Diseases In Afghan Refugee Camps
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| 40
to 50 cases are being reported daily in Afghanistan refugee
camps |
By
Aamir Latif
IOL correspondent in Pakistan
QUETTA, Feb. 4 (IslamOnline) - Conditions are ripe for a serious
outbreak of deadly diseases, including tuberculosis and diarrhea in
various Afghan refugee camps near Pakistan’s south eastern city of
Quetta, and north western city of Peshawar where refugees live in
mud huts and malnourished children play in open sewage ditches.
The situation may take a turn to the worst with the arrival of
around 8,000 more refugees who have recently entered Pakistan from
different areas of the war-stricken Afghanistan in the wake of
deteriorating law and order and armed-battles between various
warlords.
According to United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
(UNHCR) sources, the two camps set up in the rugged suburban areas
of Peshawar and Quetta are already over-crowded and the arrival of
more refugees there would only aggravate the current deteriorating
conditions.
“We have no other option. The refugees keep coming here. We have
to accommodate them within the resources and space we have
available,” the camp commandant of Roghani refugee camp, situated
some 7 Kilometers off Quetta, told IslamOnline.
“When you've got poor ventilation, close living quarters and
malnutrition, that's a breeding ground for the spread of
communicable diseases," said Dr. Saqib Ansari, who is in charge
of Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (PIMA) which has set up a
charity clinic in respective camps.
World Health Organization statistics show a very high incidence of
TB, roughly 450 cases per 100,000 people, in the refugee population
in Pakistan, compared to 177 per 100,000 in other areas of Pakistan.
That compares to 16,372 reported cases in the entire U.S. population
of 283 million last year.
In some camps, one in three normally dark-haired child has
reddish-blond hair, which is sure sign of malnutrition.
IslamOnline surveyed ill-equipped laboratories and gender-divided
hospital wards and found that even at Shamshatoo, (Peshawar) a camp
established in 1999 with a “reasonably well-managed” hospital,
in Ansari’s words, its needs are great.
The Shamshatoo hospital, which treated 24 TB patients in November,
has a mediocre laboratory, no chest X-ray equipment, and an
intermittent supply of drugs. Staff cannot do chest X-rays to
determine whether a patient is responding to drug therapy.
Meanwhile, needs were greater at the Kacha Gari camp (Thorkham,
Peshawar) hospital run by the Saudi Arabian Red Crescent, an
organization similar to the Red Cross. One health unit serves 30,000
to 40,000 people. The hospital ward has 12 cots. Patients are often
treated with drugs past their expiration dates.
“That process is problematic,” Dr. Ansari said, because TB
requires months of drug therapy, and that is difficult because ill
refugees are often on the move.
What happens, he said, is that poor people cut back or stop taking
the drugs and the disease starts developing immunities to the
medicines.
“Drug-resistant strains begin to occur. Diarrhea is also assuming
alarming proportions in the refugee camps, especially in Roghani
camp where almost 40 to 50 cases of this disease are being reported
daily with the advent of winter,” Dr. Ansari maintained.
Other winter related diseases cough, flu and fever are also on the
rise, he added. These diseases could reduce to almost 50 per cent if
only sanitary conditions are improved, Dr. Ansari said adding “but
unfortunately, the refugees have no such awareness”. 
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