ISLAMABAD, 10 November 2005 — Hundreds of earthquake survivors in Azad Kashmir have acute diarrhea and doctors are investigating whether they are cases of cholera, the World Health Organization and the United Nations said yesterday.
Aid workers are urgently trying to improve water supplies and sanitation at the cramped refugee camps where the survivors fell sick in the devastated regional capital Muzaffarabad, said WHO Technical Officer Rachel Lavy.
“In one camp we visited yesterday there were 55 cases of diarrhea and there are so many spontaneous camps that we believe there are hundreds of others,” Lavy said as she headed to one of the camps.
“Acute watery diarrhea fits very closely with the definition of cholera. That is one of the things it can be,” Lavy said, adding however that there were other waterborne diseases that could cause similar types of diarrhea.
“We are treating it as suspicious but we don’t have laboratory guidance at this stage,” she said.
The United Nations has repeatedly warned it is racing against time and a shortage of international aid cash to prevent a possible second wave of deaths from disease, cold and hunger after the Oct. 8 disaster.
“The WHO is saying that even if the laboratory diagnosis is not confirmed, these cases should be taken as seriously as if they were cholera,” said UN spokeswoman Amanda Pitt.
She said a small number of acute diarrhea patients had been reported from other towns in the quake zone in recent weeks and that outbreaks of disease were “not unexpected.”
Lavy said there were 40 other cases recorded last week in Chinari, a small town in Azad Kashmir.
British charity Oxfam warned last week that the squalid conditions in the camps could kill thousands of people, far exceeding the toll in remote villages that have been the focus of aid efforts so far.
More than 7,000 cases of diarrhea — not all of them acute — and 8,000 cases of respiratory disease had been reported in the quake zone, said top Pakistani Health Ministry official Anwar Mahmood.
“We are monitoring the situation daily,” he said.
Acute diarrhea can be fatal if it is not treated aggressively and immediately, the WHO’s Lavy said.
“It can deyhdrate an adult within a few hours,” she added. “If you get watery diarrhea you need to treat it aggressively with massive rehydration, isolation, ensuring clean water and sanitation to prevent contamination.”
But she said that curbing the spread of illness was especially difficult in the densely populated tent camps that have sprung up in Muzaffarabad.
“The spontaneous camps are not set up by the government and are not organized, so inevitably water and sanitation are not good,” she said.
Pakistan, India Reopen
Main Kashmir Crossing
Meanwhile, Pakistan and India reopened the main border crossing in divided Kashmir yesterday to help survivors of the earthquake, but the frontier stayed closed to vital relief trucks and people.
The crossing between Chakothi and Uri was one of five points along the Line of Control (LOC) the two countries agreed last month to open to facilitate aid and allow divided families to meet.
Army and civil officials shook hands and posed for photos at the earthquake-damaged Friendship Bridge yesterday before Pakistan sent over blankets, foodstuffs, tents and medicines and porters brought similar supplies from the Indian side.
“The concept is to restore confidence,” said Lt. Col. Muhammad Chiragh Haider of Pakistan. “It is a step in the right direction. It is very necessary.”
All five crossing points were supposed to open on Monday, but India says not all are ready.
Pakistan says India has insisted on paperwork, including name lists and security checks, which takes about 10 days to process, delaying family reunions until next week at the earliest.
On Monday, when the first point opened, Pakistani police fired tear gas to disperse Kashmiris prevented from crossing.
— Additional input from Agencies
