Pakistan Children Need More Medical Help

ISLAMABAD, 12 Oct 2005 (IRIN) - More than 300 children injured in Saturday's devastating regional earthquake have been airlifted to the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, over the last four days. Most of children have head injuries, broken limbs or are severely traumatised by their experiences, said Akhtar Haq, head of local NGO, Friends of the Child, working at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS).

"Medical support is sufficient so far here, but there is a shortage of bandages. We need blankets, sweaters and warm clothes for children and also for their guardians or relatives," Haq added. “These are children who, amongst the thousands hurt, have been lucky to be pulled out of the rubble and brought to the hospital for medical care,” United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) health officer Nabila Zaka said during a visit to the hospital.

The earthquake in Pakistan destroyed about 1,000 hospitals and that loss is causing major problems in providing urgent medical treatment for thousands of injured survivors, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said.

In the town of Balekot, 100 km northeast of Islamabad and close to earthquake's epicentre, a makeshift field hospital established by the Pakistani army has been trying to deal with up to 1,000 seriously injured people each day, who have walked or crawled into the town from outlying areas. Doctors at the rudimentary health facility said they were short of most medical supplies and were only able to offer first aid to most of the injured.

In the aftermath of Saturday's 7.6-magnitude earthquake, Pakistan has made an urgent request to the international community for field hospitals, along with antibiotics, surgical equipment, fracture treatment kits, anti-typhoid drugs, and other medical supplies.

"The devastation has created major obstacles in urgently helping the thousands of injured people to get the medical help they need," said a statement from the WHO. "Many health workers, including doctors and nurses, have died or been seriously injured."

The WHO also said there's an urgent need for measles vaccines for children, as well as clean water and sanitation.

UNICEF health officer Tamur Mueenuddin said he witnessed terrible injuries sustained by children in the city of Mansehra, not far from the epicentre of the earthquake. Mueenuddin said he saw children with twisted limbs and abdominal lacerations.

"There are 2,000 children needing operations there – they're being taken in batches of 200 down to the [local] hospital where five medical teams are working round the clock," he said. Virtually every medical facility in the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi is packed with earthquake survivors. Wards are already full and now corridors are lined with survivors, many with multiple injuries.

PAKISTAN: UN Relief Coordinator calls for more helicopters

MUZAFFARABAD, 13 Oct 2005 (IRIN) - The UN's Emergency Relief Coordinator, Jan Egeland, toured the devastated city of Muzaffarabad on Thursday - close to the epicentre of Saturday's massive regional earthquake - to see for himself the extent of the disaster that has killed at least 25,000 people and left more than 2 million homeless."The biggest problem at the moment is to reach people in outlying areas. It's heart breaking to see flattened small villages. This devastation is just a complete nightmare, 70 percent of this city has been completely destroyed," Egeland told IRIN.

The earthquake has destroyed more than 80 percent of structures and buildings in parts of northern Pakistan, and strong aftershocks are threatening buildings already damaged by the initial earthquake. Many cities and villages in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), the most affected areas, have been wiped out. More than four million people are affected, of whom one million are in acute need of assistance.

Five days after the earthquake struck, relief workers are battling to get assistance to needy people in thousands of isolated communities. "We are most concerned for the people stuck in small villages. It's a race against the clock," Egeland noted, after a helicopter tour of the region around Muzaffarabad.

The UN humanitarian coordinator promised a 60-bed medical facility would be established in the city, where most hospitals and clinics have been destroyed, by the end of this week. He also issued an urgent appeal for more helicopters - the only way to ferry aid to the many settlements cut off - saying many more were needed right now if thousands of lives are to be saved. More aid was on the way, he said. "In the pipeline we have 10,000 tents and 100,000 blankets but it takes time to get them into these areas."

The United Nations on Tuesday launched a Flash Appeal for approximately US $272 million for Pakistan, in response to the 7.6 magnitude earthquake. The appeal aims at life-saving and early recovery activities for a six-month emergency phase.

Egeland also asked donor countries to be generous in responding to the emergency. More than 30 countries have already pledged more than $300 million to help the victims and pay for reconstruction. Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have given $100 each. "Next week there will be a big donor conference in Geneva to get funding for the quake-hit region," Egeland said.