PESHAWAR, June 23: The World Health Organization has begun holding a series of workshops in the six districts, that were worst-hit by rain and snowfall, to build capacity of healthcare professionals so that they can cope with post-disaster emergencies. “We have so far conducted workshops in Swat, Dir and Shangla. The experts imparted knowledge to doctors, paramedics and nurses about coping with the diseases that are expected to hit the people of the rain-hit areas,” said Dr Quaid Saeed, the WHO’s emergency medical officer who conducted the workshops.

According to him, the World Health Organization was trying to educate the health professionals on Disease Early Warning System (DEWS).

He said that in the three districts, the health professionals had been trained on the tools used in the DEWS and future role of the doctors in monitoring the trends of diseases.

During the workshops, he said, the participants had been given a set consisting of DEWS tools, including disease early warning weekly chart, daily disease reporting form and booklets on case definitions and management and prevention of infectious diseases.

Dr Quaid said that the workshops were conducted in collaboration with the UNDP and the provincial health department on the DEWS, drug storage, dispensing and prescription handling.

He said that similar workshops had been planned in Mansehra, Abbottabad and Kohistan.

An inter-agency coordinating committee, comprising Unicef, the WHO, WFP, UNFPA and NGOs, had collected data on losses through a rapid assessment exercise in the six districts, he said.

According to him, the committee noted that 2.8 million people had been affected by the disaster and 140,000 of them were isolated and stranded in snow-bound villages in Kohistan, upper Swat, Shangla, Battagram, the Kaghan area in Mansehra and Thandian in Abbottabad.