Irregular rain pattern, lack of fresh water causing children diseases
Due to irregular rain patterns, and lack of fresh drinking water, there has been increase in diseases among children from across the country.
This was pointed out by Pakistan Paediatric Association President Prof Iqbal Memon while talking to APP.
Prof Iqbal Memon said, use of contaminated water causes outbreaks of water-borne diseases, especially in the rural areas of the country.
He said a few decades back, freshwater was abundantly available to riverside communities during all seasons.
“Now there is no water in the rivers, while ponds in Punjab and Sindh have become dried or contaminated, but people along the rivers have no other option but to use that water for drinking and cooking,” Dr Iqbal added.
He further informed that there has been high number of cases among children with vector-borne diseases across the country, particularly in Sindh during the last couple of months.
Federal Government Polyclinic Hospital Paediatrics head Dr Munir Shahzad said, “the rise in vector-borne diseases, including diarrhoea, cholera, gastroenteritis, typhoid, and hepatitis, is due to environmental factors and the effects of climate change.”
Environmentalist and the government’s adviser on climate change Qamaruz Zaman Chaudhry said, “The environmental factors in the country were causing a rise in diseases.”
“I totally agree with health experts that the surge in seasonal vector-borne diseases is linked to environmental factors”, he added.
He said “We had already warned about the issue in the National Climate Change Policy”.
He said, “environmentalists had feared that the frequency of diseases, including cold, influenza, gastroenteritis, diarrhoea and fever among children will increase due to global warming in the current year.”
He said the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz had incorporated a strategy to tackle climate change in its manifesto on the recommendation of experts. He expresed the hope that the PML-N will allocate more resources to deal with the problem of climate change.
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