With the monsoon season in full swing, an independent medical humanitarian association Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) said it has been receiving an increasing number of patients with acute watery diarrhoea in different areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
From the start of July MSF had opened temporary diarrhoea treatment centres in existing hospitals in Mingora in Swat district, in Timergara in Lower Dir district and in Hangu in KP, as well as in Sadda in Kurram to help provide treatment to patients suffering from acute watery diarrhoea in the isolation ward of Tehsil Headquarter (THQ) hospital in Dargai and in the outpatient department of THQ hospital in Alizai in Kurrum, it said.
As of the start of September more than 5,400 patients suffering from diarrhea have been treated, MSF claimed adding that of the four temporary diarrhoea treatment centres, the one in Mingora has seen the highest number of patients with an average of 200 patients per day. In late August, the number of cases increased sharply over the course of a week, rising from 73 to 270 patients per day. About 25 percent of these were children under five years.
“Acute watery diarrhoea is an easily treatable disease, but it can spread quickly so prevention is as important as treatment,” says MSF Medical Coordinator Dr Jacob Maikere. “The number of cases that we saw, especially in Swat, increased significantly during and after the Eid holiday.
The situation is now stabilising, but we still need to continue the treatment with patients and our efforts to control the spread of disease.”
