More than 90,000 people were treated for infectious and waterborne diseases in one day in flood-affected areas of southern Pakistan; government data showed on Friday. At the same time, the total death toll from the floods exceeded 1,500.
According to the South Sindh provincial government report on Friday, the flooded areas have been infested with diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, diarrhoea and skin problems.
It confirmed 588 malaria cases, with another 10,604 suspected besides 17,977 diarrhoea and 20,064 skin disease reported on Thursday. 2.3 million patients have been treated since July 1 in the field, and mobile hospitals set up in the flooded region.
Record monsoon rains in the south and southwest Pakistan and glacial melt in northern parts triggered the flooding that impacted nearly 33 million people in the 220 million South Asian nation, sweeping homes, crops, bridges, roads and livestock in damages estimated at $30 billion.
The National Disaster Management Authority reported 1,508 deaths, including 536 children and 308 women.
Hundreds of thousands of people who have been displaced are in dire need of support in terms of food, shelter, clean drinking water, toilets, and medicines. Many have been sleeping in the open by the side of elevated highways. The torrential monsoon, which submerged vast swathes of Pakistan, was a one in a hundred-year event likely made more intense by climate change, scientists said on Thursday.