Pandemonium of diseases after floods – An emerging major health issue in Pakistan

Abstract

Floods and heavy rain bring another disaster of diseases and pose a huge burden on the health care system. Pakistan is currently facing a major natural disaster of this decade, where Sindh and Baluchistan are badly affected. Millions of people are homeless and live in camps, shelter homes, or tent cities. The diseases that emerge immediately after floods include gastroenteritis with diarrhoea and vomiting, followed by vector-borne diseases (i.e. malaria and dengue fever) influenced by the growth of mosquitoes in the stagnant water. Due to unhygienic conditions and overcrowded camps, skin diseases emerge later. Altogether this situation causes major burden on the already weakened health care system, which is devastated due to rain and even destroyed in some places. Thus proper planning and preventive measures need to be taken on an urgent basis.