Pakistan Emergency - International - Press release - Press - Médecins du Monde
Communiqué de presse
Pakistan Emergency
Paris, Friday August 20, 2010
Doctors of the World (MdM) continues working with affected populations and opens a centre to treat diarrhoeal diseases in Kohat, in the north-west of the country.
Having been working with displaced people in the KPK area (Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, in the north-west of the country) for the past year, Doctors of the World/Médecins du Monde (MdM) quickly redeployed to focus on providing relief to victims of the floods that have hit Pakistan for the last three weeks. "On the banks of the Kabul river most houses are totally or partially flooded and health facilities are paralysed" explain our teams, composed of nearly 200 people, most of whom are Pakistani.
Seven mobile clinics (curative and preventive medical consultations, vaccinations) have been set up in the KPK area, with access to over 600,000 people. "In the districts of Nowshera, Charsadda and Kohat, which are badly affected by floods, each mobile team treats around 250 patients a day, suffering mainly from dermatological diseases due to contaminated water and sanitation problems, diarrhoeas or respiratory infections", reports Marc Van der Mullen, MdM coordinator in the field.
Today, Friday, 20 August, MdM has also opened, in conjunction with the Pakistani health authorities, a centre for diarrhoea treatment in the town of Kohat. This centre, with 40 hospital beds, is intended to cover the needs of the entire district of Kohat. "Overcrowding, contaminated water and lack of access to safe drinking water are vectors of gastro-intestinal diseases, and cases of diarrhoea have doubled since the floods began" said Marc Van der Mullen. "In the district of Kohat more than 200 cases were identified on Wednesday alone, of which over 30% required hospitalisation. What worries us is the risk of cholera cases."
Please do not hesitate to contact us should you wish to be put in contact with our teams in the field.
Press Contacts:
Florence Priolet, Laure Antoine +33(0)1 44 92 14 31-15 23/+33(0)6 09 17 35 59
infomdm@medecinsdumonde.net
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