PESHAWAR: The World Health Organisation has called for urgent medical supplies with focus on reproductive health services and cure for water-borne diseases among the internally displaced population of North Waziristan Agency settling in Bannu and other southern districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The WHO has also warned against measles outbreak among displaced children who remained unvaccinated for last 20 months, according to its weekly health situation report of the displaced population.

The WHO, which is the only organisation helping the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to provide health services to the uprooted people, said the existing stock of medicines was enough to only cover 5 per cent of the patients.

The WHO called for equipping the one district headquarters hospital, two rural health centres, 20 basic health units, three civil dispensaries and two mother and child health centres in Bannu, where displaced population turned up to seek treatment.

With significant increase in displaced population, the health facilities in the IDP-hosting areas didn’t have the capacity to cater to their health needs. Women and children who formed 73 per cent of the displaced population were at the receiving end due to harsh living conditions and lack of access to basic amenities, like water, electricity and proper accommodation, said the WHO.

The report said showed that presently about 1,000 patients were suffering from diarrhoea, including 100 from severe watery diarrhoea. It said that the number could rise for want of human resources and necessary drugs.

The WHO also mentioned low coverage of immunisation against nine vaccine-preventable childhood ailments as one of the serious issues which needed immediate attention as vaccination in Waziristan hadn’t been carried out since June 2012 due to a Taliban ban.

It said that there were also risks of measles outbreak as measles alerts had also been reported from the areas where displaced people were coming.

The WHO report also mentioned lack of gynecologists, anesthetists and women medical officers for training of the existing staff, including lady health visitors, lady health workers and midwives.

It said that serious gaps existed in the health service delivery and that more resources were needed to fill these gaps for preventing outbreak of communicable diseases.

The health situation report also highlighted severe acute malnutrition issues among displaced children and urged establishment of stabilisation and therapeutic feeding centres.

Meanwhile, officials said the health department had asked the local officials in southern districts to provide all facilities to the displaced population, after the Chief Minister Pervez Khattak scolded them for their inability to cater to the health needs of displaced people, during his visit to Bannu hospitals recently.

The officials said that health facilities in the southern districts, especially Bannu, weren’t enough to provide treatment to over 850,000 displaced people of NWA.

They said that the federal government, which directly governs Fata and is responsible for the health of the IDPs, had been requested to supplement the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s efforts to ensure that they got adequate medical care.

Published in Dawn, July 10th , 2014