Disease warning network established

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pakistani health ministry have established an early warning and response network to identify and respond to outbreaks of disease in quake-ravaged areas of the country. “It’s up and running and routine data is slowly coming in,” Altaf Musani, emergency operations manager and a spokesman for the World Health Organization (WHO), told IRIN in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, noting as of Monday, there had been no reported outbreaks. Working in close collaboration with the Ministry of Health (MoH), the surveillance mechanism had been dispatched throughout the quake-affected area, Musani explained, with key locations at Balakot and Mansehra in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Muzaffarabad, Bagh and Rawalakot in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. “The idea is that they do outreach to periphery areas from there,” the WHO official clarified - reporting to one of the five locations. “If there is an outbreak, there is no point waiting 10 days before the outbreak is reported,” he asserted. Working in teams of 10, the programme is designed to complement health teams already on the ground. The ministry has dispatched over 100 people with the support of WHO to provide services and continue assessments, with plans in the pipeline for another 200, including surveillance officers. “We’re working on that now. That’s the next phase,” the WHO spokesman added. Surveillance officers will train health staff in disease tracking and Response, and further health specialists will be deployed to gather data from existing health centres. Included in the standardised reporting form being distributed are some 17 conditions, including pregnancy-related deaths, neo-natal deaths, acute diarrhoea, bloody diarrhoea, acute flaccid paralysis (AFP), suspected malaria, acute respiratory infections (ARI), measles, meningitis, jaundice, tetanus, hemorrhagic fever, unexplained fever, along with injuries and wounds. “Again, this gives us an alert to track these things,” Musani maintained. “The goal is for people to report on such cases and their numbers as they see them.” Asked what the primary health risks were at the moment, he replied: “At this stage, it's making sure that those out in the peripheries – the affected, or those who have not been accessed - have access to food, water, shelter and health services.” “We have got just 25 days before the winter sets in. Once it snows on the ground, it’s going to be very hard for the humanitarian community to get services up and running. We’ve got to get it up rapidly. We’re basically on a countdown,” he said.