KARACHI: The Sindh government has sought support of the World Health Organisation (WHO) to establish three ‘nutrition stabilisation centres’ in as many taluka hospitals to prevent more deaths of children in Thar because of deficient immunity, it emerged on Friday.

Officials said that the health department had recently sent a letter to the WHO requesting it for its technical and financial assistance in establishing the nutrition stabilisation centres in three talukas.

They said that the provincial health department had planned to set the facilities in the taluqa hospitals of Diplo, Nangarparkar and Chhachhro.

Sources in the WHO said its experts would train the provincial health department’s staffs, provide nutrition support and required drugs.

They had nodded to the Sindh government’s request and had begun paperwork for the three centres already.

A WHO-supported nutrition stabilisation centre had already been established in Mithi, the district Thar’s headquarters, where children suffering from weighting and malnutrition were being taken care of, said an official in the health department.

“Such centres will certainly help increase immunity in Thar’s children,” said the official.

There are conflicting reports in the media, which shared varying figures of deaths of children in the desert region. Conservative reports put it more than 100 deaths in the past two months. A provincial government’s statement issued recently gave the figure of more than 200 children died in past several months.

Experts, however, said that the situation in Thar was not extraordinary given the fact that Thar had the highest under-five mortality rate in Pakistan with 90 to 100 deaths per 1,000 live births.

A recent survey carried out by the provincial disaster management authority reported to the chief minister that Sindh’s 10 districts were facing drought with Thar’s was the gravest while Dadu and Jamshoro were partially affected.

The report said parts of Thatta, Sujawal, Sukkur (Achhro Thar), Umerkot, Khipro taluka of Sanghar, Nara taluka of Khairpur, Qambar- Shahdadkot and parts of Karachi faced mild drought.

Published in Dawn, November 29th, 2014