RCA starts medical aid operation in flood-hit Pakistani Malik Abad village

Sept 13. 2010 (WAM)- Mobile medical teams from the Red Crescent Authority (RCA), already stationed in Pakistan, has expanded its operation to provide full medical diagnosis and treatment to residents of Malik Abad village in northwest Pakistan's Nowshera where floods displaced thousands of people and destroyed health services and infrastructure.
On the second day of the operation, the team which aims to help the 400 families who make up the population of the affected village has brought in field medical equipment and medicine and conducted a program to raise the villagers' awareness against contagious diseases which could break out because of potential water pollution and the bad living conditions in crowded make-shift camps.
Baz Mohammed, coordinator of relief efforts in Malik Abad stressed that health care is urgently needed to counter possible disease breakouts in the whole area. "The village of (Malik Abad) now is without any healthcare centres or dispensaries in the wake of the floods," Mohammed said.
Member of RCA team Mohammed Salah, a volunteer doctor from Abu Dhabi Police Medical Services, reported cases of skin diseases and eye inflammation caused by polluted stagnant water in Malik Abad where ponds turned into hotbeds for bacteria and mosquitoes.
More than six million Pakistani people were forced from their homes by the disaster which has also killed about 1,600 people, inflicted billions of dollars of damage to homes, infrastructure and the vital agriculture sector. UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says 200799 houses were destroyed by the floods in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 1154 people were killed and 1193 injured. – Emirates News Agency, WAM