Get eat one for a day and torrential rains, the condition of Rohingya refugees being complicated
News24xx.com - Bangladeshi government, UN agencies, and a number of NGOs have launched a massive vaccination campaign to save hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees from the spread of cholera outbreak.
Bangladesh's Ministry of Health, supported by The World Health Organization, UNICEF and other NGOs, distributed oral vaccine to 88,000 Rohingya on Tuesday in a large-scale campaign that aims to vaccinate 650,000 people in the next three and a half weeks.
It is the second-largest oral vaccination campaign in the world, after another in Haiti last year. It will involve 900,000 doses of vaccine.
A second phase of immunisations, which is expected to begin November, aims to immunise 250,000 children between the age of one and five.
Although no cases of cholera have been officially recorded, the vaccination campaign is a precautionary measure to prevent a full-on breakout.
However, at least 10,292 cases of diarrhoea, which are symptomatic to cholera, have been diagnosed by the WHO so far.
"I won't be surprised if we have a few cholera cases coming among all these diarrheal diseases because it is inevitable," Dr Navaratnasamy Paranietharan, a WHO representative at Cox's Bazar told.
The conditions in the camp are alarming: it's wet, muddy and overcrowded. There is also a shortage of clean water and sanitation.
Most of the refugees are living on one meal a day and torrential rains, followed by relentless heat waves, have further complicated their conditions.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has urged for precautionary measures to avoid the outbreak.
"Clean water and safe drinking water is critical in reducing and preventing these kind of diseases," Yante Ismail, a UNHCR spokesperson told.
Leonard Doyle, spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration, echoed the warning.
"They need water, they need shelter, they need aid, but they're certainly seeing more traumatised people,".
Cholera kills 95,000 people each year and affects an additional 2.9 million people worldwide. It's an acute diarrheal infection caused by ingesting contaminated food or water that causes mild symptoms including dehydration and diarrhoea.
The disease often strikes regions steeped in conflict that lack sanitation and where malnutrition runs rampant. Cholera can be fatal within hours if untreated.
-
Aug 03, 2020 | 05:02 pm LT
Sri Lanka polls to go ahead despite the spread of ...
-
Aug 03, 2020 | 09:10 am LT
Keep Friendship Well; Jokowi Called King Salman: H...
-
Aug 02, 2020 | 09:44 pm LT
Thousands demand Netanyahu resignation as Israel P...
-
Jul 12, 2020 | 11:20 pm LT
Mali's opposition rejected concessions by Presiden...
-
Jul 01, 2020 | 09:54 am LT
Compared to Other Presidents, Spokesperson Gusdur ...
-
Jun 05, 2020 | 10:30 am LT
Coinciding With the Tiananmen Memorial in China, U...
-
Aug 16, 2020 | 05:06 am LT
Attack of Racism; Give Salute in the style of Nazi...
-
Aug 09, 2020 | 11:50 am LT
Viral Story of an old woman in Indramayu who almos...
-
Aug 09, 2020 | 10:55 am LT
Mark Zuckerberg has joined the world's most exclus...
-
Aug 09, 2020 | 10:45 am LT
Revealed! It turns out that this is the origin of ...
-
Aug 09, 2020 | 10:42 am LT
Severe! A Woman in South Tangerang is Raped After ...
-
Aug 09, 2020 | 09:34 am LT
Dor! This Man's Intestine Explodes After Eating A ...