March 10, 2006	Friday	Safar 9, 1427

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PESHAWAR, March 9: Around 200 people died, 31 per cent of them from acute respiratory infection (ARI), in the quake-hit areas during February this year, says a WHO report.

It said that 29 per cent patients in the areas suffered from ARI, six per cent from acute watery diarrhoea and four per cent from unexplained fever and another four per cent from varying injuries.

The number of cases of measles reported from the Maira camp in Battagram decreased to 15 in two weeks on account of a vaccination campaign carried out by WHO and Unicef.

The WHO has also delivered a new emergency health kit and 60 hygiene kits to Dassu Hospital in Kohistan district which can cater to the needs of 100,000 people for three months.

Furthermore, the UN health agency has also supplied 250 hygiene kits to the Cuban hospital in Bisham and 90 such kits were distributed among families living in the Sakagah tent village.

Since most of the people in the camp would be relocated in mid-March, a group of trained lady health workers and male health promoters would be assigned the task of disseminating information regarding hygiene and health problems to the people leaving the camp and those in remote areas which were previously inaccessible due to rash weather conditions.

A prefabricated basic health unit is ready to start operations in Sanger, Balakot. About 11 such BHUs, each costing Rs20 million, are under construction. These BHUs, the report said, would provide increased health care access to health care to affected communities.

The report said that emergency health coordination and information management was in place and all field offices were currently engaged in compilation of inputs from the health partners for an action plan on transition from relief to recovery.

The report said that the number of reporting sites for disease early warning system (DEWS) had increased from 184 to 196. Till Feb 24, 83 per cent of them sent their epidemiological data to the WHO, which was providing health facilities with communication tools and incentives to improve timely reporting.

It said two cases of acute hepatitis were reported from Garhi Habibullah and Bamphora in Balakot. Four cases of suspected acute hepatitis were reported from the civil hospital in Battal, Mansehra.

Likewise, one case of suspected measles was reported by a field hospital in Garhi Habibullah. From Battagram, the report said, two cases, one of suspected meningitis and the other of measles were reported last month. Vaccination had been carried out for measles in Battagram camps but one case was reported because the patient was not present in his home during the campaign and he was not vaccinated. Similarly, the report said, one measles patient found in Maira camp had also not been vaccinated. The WHO has planned a follow-up vaccination campaign to protect all children from the disease.

One case of chickenpox was reported from Shinkiari in Mansehra, the report said, because vaccination for chickenpox was not included in the routine immunisation programme in Pakistan. Most children contract this disease when they are young.