Cambodia’s flooding brings specter of disease
Flooding is a perennial pain in Cambodia, the low-lying, deeply impoverished nation squeezed between Thailand and Vietnam. About this time each year, rivers swell, lakes expand and villages sink beneath soupy brown waters. But this year’s flooding woes are proving particularly miserable. More than 100 are dead, roughly 850 square miles flooded and more than 60,000 evacuated from their homes, according to situation reports prepared by United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations. … Severely flooded zones now appear threatened by a rash of diseases, namely dengue fever (borne by mosquitoes, which lay eggs in fetid water), as well as respiratory illness (such as the flu) and plain-old diarrhea. … Treatable diseases easily beaten back by healthy people are more likely to kill the young, the old and anyone whose body is weakened by a poor diet. According to the UN World Food Program, Cambodia’s malnutrition rate is “stubbornly high” with nearly 40 percent of children underfed. The United Nations news service, IRIN, cites an “increase in reports of respiratory and diarrheal disease” with no hard figures yet available. …
Global Post News Staff
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/cambodia/131011/cambodia-floods-again-disease-dengue
