ISLAMABAD, Oct 14: A Bagh-based doctor has warned against the outbreak of epidemic diseases in the earthquake-hit district of Azad Kashmir if immediate steps were not taken to prevent health threats posed by stinking decomposed bodies.

Dr Mohammad Akram Khan, who works with District Headquarters Hospital Bagh, told Dawn that disinfectants on large scale should immediately be sent to the area.

He said diseases of lungs and abdomen were already spreading in Bagh and warned that the situation could get worse if adequate measures were not taken to provide a clean environment to the affected people, including children.

Dr Khan said the people forced to live in the open were prone to other diseases also owing to inclement weather. He said tents in sufficient number should be sent.

Dr Mohammad Akram Khan said multi-directional relief efforts were required. He said bodies lying under debris should be recovered and buried and injured persons be provided treatment before it was too late.

He called for restoration of power supply in Bagh, adding that a mobile operation theatre that had arrived in the area would be useless without electricity. He said medicines, oxygen cylinders and surgical equipment should be rushed to the area.

He said since there was no arrangements to cook food, ready- to-eat food should be sent to Bagh instead of pulses, flour and rice.

About the incidents of looting of convoys carrying relief goods, he said Army or some other agency should be given the task to ensure uninterrupted provision of relief to the affected people.

About the extent of devastation caused by the earthquake in Bagh, he said 100 per cent houses in some 15 villages, including Kafal Garh, Banni Minhasan, Banni Manoran and Khala Basian, collapsed.