Disease stalks Bangladesh flood victims

url: (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6939150.stm)


There are many dire consequences that Bangladesh must face after days of horrific flooding that have taken their homes and drowned hundreds of them underwater. Disease is one major concern that I always suspect it would occur anytime since Bangladesh has lack of natural resources, and of course, they do not have as much as water intake as we have in America. I believe these problematic situations should be presented as the major developmental issues of my focus country of Bangladesh. In regards to low supply of water, the floods are the ones causing Bangladeshi people agony, and now UN's World Food Programme has distributed aid to the North of the country, including the central districts. But the water is stagant, being the water-borne disease, and there is absolutely no clean water. One mother has to cook a meal by boiling vegetables in the dirty water and she has really no choice because her children need to eat no matter what, but if they got sick, she will try her best to contact a doctor.

However, I've read the Human Development Report last night regarding Bangladesh's water supply and number of doctors they have available per 100,000 people. It is very, very unfortunate to acknowledge that there are only 26 physicians per 100,000 people/area compared to hundreds of physicians available here in America. This is absolutely depressing to know how impoverished the country has already become due to its overpopulated size and lack of natural resources. In addition, the International Centre of Diarrhoeal Disease Research (Which I think it is a funny name) in Dhaka only checks on 150 patients a day, I mean, imagine how hundreds and hundreds of people are injured and seriously ill from the flooding would come in the hospital to be treated, don't you think there's lack of healthcare and less physicians available there? Now children and adults are being exposed to drinking contaminated water on a daily basis and got seriously ill afterwards, even repeatedly if they returned home healthy, they would get sick again for drinking water. This year in Bangladesh, more than 40% of the lands were affected, but it is much less worse than the "mega-flood" in 1998.