EVERY news report says so, but will the floods in Pakistan really trigger widespread disease outbreaks? Aid agencies are warning of possible epidemics of water-borne diarrhoeal and respiratory diseases, yet such events are rare in the wake of flooding, according to the World Health Organization.
A WHO report of 2 August describes how health teams recently assessed 3809 individuals across the flood-hit Peshawar district. Of those, 14 per cent had diarrhoea and 16 per cent were found to be suffering from respiratory tract infections. The figures may seem high, but it was too early to make predictions of an…
