On Friday, 8 cases of diarrhoeal disease were reported in Balakot. On Saturday, 80 cases were reported. WHO and UNICEF staff, including water and sanitation experts and epidemiologists, have been urgently dispatched by helicopter to Balakot. They are bringing chlorine tablets, oral rehydration salts and medicines.
Lack of sufficient clean water and adequate sanitation remains a major public health concern. Clean water, chlorine tablets, and mobile water purification plants are urgently needed.
Heavy rains were reported in Muzaffarabad yesterday. A camp located on the university campus which contains over 1,500 people living in tents has had some flooding. As temperatures continue to fall adequate shelter is becoming an increasing concern.
Most of the quake-affected people are not living in camps but in makeshift tents near their property. The fear of aftershocks prevents them from returning into homes still left standing.
In Islamabad, the main referral hospital (Pakistani Institute of Medical Sciences,) with a normal capacity of 800 beds, continues to receive hundreds of patients flown in by helicopter from remote areas.
The Ministry of Health plans to open another 100-200 bed field hospital at Islamabad airport to reduce the delay in treating the most severe cases arriving by helicopter.
The injured continue to arrive at health facilities with injuries such as broken or crushed limbs, head, spinal and chest trauma needing urgent attention. As the days pass, open wounds are becoming increasingly infected with many cases of gangrene reported.
WHO continues to conduct an analysis regarding field hospitals to determine how many more will be needed and where they are to be located. Latest information indicates 22 International Field Hospitals and medical staff to be operational in the affected areas.
Lack of access due to blocked roads continues to hamper deployment of heavy field hospitals, most of which need to be trucked in. In the affected mountainous region, valleys are the only suitable location but debris from fallen buildings poses another challenge for their installation.
For more information contact:
In Pakistan
Chris Black - Media Officer
Mobile Phone: +92 300 501 0639
Satellite Phone: +88 216 5119 1015
E-mail: blackc@who.int
In Geneva
Marko Kokic - Information Officer
Health Action in Crises
WHO Geneva
Telephone: +41 22 791 24 48
Mobile phone: +41 79 217 34 11
E-mail: kokicm@who.int