Howrah News Service -  Latest news and headlines on Howrah,West Bengal and World: Conditions ripe for disease in Myanmar's devastated regions

Conditions ripe for disease in Myanmar's devastated regions
================================================================================
newsbyte on 27 May, 2008 07:21:25
 
Myint Hlaing's family bathes and cooks with water from an irrigation ditch
fouled by human waste and a rotting cow carcass. His 10-year-old daughter drinks
bottled water donated by aid groups, but she still suffers from diarrhea.
Meanwhile, his family and other cyclone survivors endure daily rains in
tattered thatch huts as the monsoon season nears.
Myanmar's junta insists health conditions are normal in Myanmar's devastated
Irawaddy delta. But in many areas of the delta, they are a recipe for disease.
"Shelter is the most important thing we need," Myint Hlaing said.
"There are more and more mosquitoes here. We are afraid of getting dengue  
fever."he added.
Relief group Church World Service has reported finding elderly and child
survivours of the cyclone dying from dysentery in some areas because many have
no choice but to drink dirty water.
Other groups have detected a number of ailments including pneumonia, malaria,
cholera and diarrhea.'Save the Children', UK, has warned that some 30,000
children in the delta were severely malnourished before Cyclone Nargis struck,
with thousands facing starvation in the next two or three weeks.
The monsoon season, which begins next month, adds yet another challenge."The
rain is a real problem," Eric Stover, lead author of a critical report published
last year about Myanmar's broken health system, after visiting the delta.
"The water is rising up, and the latrines are just outside (flowing) into the
water, and there's livestock around. That's the perfect breeding ground for
diarrhea and
cholera" Eric added.