BADIN, Aug 27: Ms Nathi, a poor rain victim, had no option but to sell her nose-pin in order to buy powdered milk for her newborn twins because she suffers from lactation (process of suckling young) failure.

She said while tending to her 10-day-old babies lying on a 'ralli' on bare floor amid unhygienic conditions that her world turned upside down in the wake of heavy rains and she was forced to flee her poor lodgings in a village near Badin and move into a government relief camp.

She is now wholly dependent on government assistance to feed her babies.

The heavy rains wrecked havoc in Badin and triggered breaches in the Left Bank Outfall Drain (LBOD) and other small drains, which inundated most of the area. Districts of Tando Mohammad Khan, Mirpurkhas and parts of Thatta and Mithi were also affected by the rain.

The dreary conditions in relief camps carry many risks for expecting mothers and newborn babies. Malnutrition coupled with unhygienic conditions threatens newborn babies of Ms Nathi and others like her.

Lack of access to gynaecologists and physicians compound their misery. Health experts fear that poor conditions in the camps might lead to an increase in cases of infection, malnutrition, mortality and morbidity.

Lactation failure is mainly caused by lack of privacy in the camps because mothers feel very uneasy in breast-feeding their babies in the presence of others. Expecting mothers too undergo the same stress.

Experts say that such environment may cause infection among newborns and neonatal infection is the second common cause of deaths in Pakistan.

Cases of waterborne diseases, especially diarrhoea are reported daily in camps because of insanitation and unavailability of safe drinking water.

“Stress is a serious problem for mothers who find it difficult to feed their babies in absence of privacy. Stress always leads to lactation failure and newborns are always at risk of having infection,” said Dr Salma Sheikh, a paediatrician and chairperson of the Department of Allied Sciences at the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences.

“Since rain victims can't boil water the authorities must ensure availability of chlorine tablets so that at least safe drinking water can be provided to them,” she said.

Malnutrition among expecting mothers would lead to morbidity and mortality among newborn, she said.

Visits to different relief camps in Badin and Tando Mohammad Khan revealed that skin infection, diarrhoea and acute respiratory infection are common among rain victims.

Camps lack civic facilities and clean drinking water is unavailable. Rain victims are dependent on water tankers that supply them water in camps.

Regular supply of food to victims and special diet for infants and newborns is a major problem because camp dwellers are mostly provided cooked rice or unbaked ration.

The government has not so far allowed aid agencies to work in disaster hit area to provide assistance to people.

Expecting mothers face a myriad of problems. It was learnt that at one camp alone in coastal union council of Bhugra Memon in Badin eight expecting mothers would need help of a gynaecologist.

A team of LUMHS doctors who visited a number of camps found that pregnant women had swollen limbs and they were mostly bare footed, exposing themselves to cuts and wounds caused by thorns.

“We witness swelling only at an advanced stage of pregnancy. This swelling indicates that women must have walked bare footed or run in fear to reach camps,” said Prof Kolachi of the LUMHS's Community Medicine Department.

The women feel serious mental stress about their future. “They have lost their abodes and are uncertain about their life,” he said.

Doctors were apparently providing only symptomatic treatment. Survivors are taught how to use utensils, wash hands and clean their lodging to avoid infection.

Camp dwellers complained the drugs provided to them for skin infection were not effective.

Mohammad Ibrahim, in-charge of a camp set up in the Government Boys High School Bhugra Memon where 196 families were staying with 1,094 people, said that the first supply of relief goods was provided on Aug 14 and the second on Aug 17.

“I am given this bag with four kilogram of wheat flour, 100 gram of tea, one kg each of ghee and sugar and I have members of family to feed,” said Khamiso Khaskheli while showing his bag of relief goods.

“I don't have drugs and I have cough and fever,” said a peasant woman Ms Karma who lies in semi-unconscious state on a cot in a roadside settlement in Tando Ghulam Hyder tehsil of Tando Mohammad Khan district.

Dr Kolachi warned of serious crisis in the event of outbreak of waterborne diseases if water for the victims was not chlorinated because underground and conduit water was saline.

His sample analysis at two camps in Pangrio revealed that TDS (total dissolved solids) level in water was 3,000 against normal range of 500.