Reuters Health Information: Millions of children in Boko Haram-hit Lake Chad prey to disease as rains arrive
Millions of children in Boko Haram-hit Lake Chad prey to disease as rains arrive
Last Updated: 2017-06-23
By Kieran Guilbert
DAKAR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Millions of children
across the Lake Chad basin are prey to deadly water-borne
diseases such as cholera and hepatitis E as the rainy season
hits a region already reeling from Boko Haram's insurgency, the
United Nations said on Friday.
More than 5.6 million children in Cameroon, Chad, Niger and
Nigeria, many of whom have been uprooted by violence and live in
host communities or refugee camps, are facing the disease threat
as the rains arrive, said the U.N. children's agency (UNICEF).
Flooding and muddy roads are expected to limit aid access to
remote areas, where hunger is growing and food is lacking, while
the insecurity has made it hard to deliver supplies and ensure
clean water is available ahead of the rains, aid agencies say.
"The rains will further complicate what is already a dire
humanitarian situation, as millions of children made vulnerable
by conflict are now facing the potential spread of opportunistic
diseases," Marie Pierre Poirier of UNICEF said in a statement.
"Unsafe water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene
conditions can lead to cholera and hepatitis E," said UNICEF's
regional director. "Staving off disease is our top priority."
Cholera, which spreads through contaminated food and water,
causes diarrhea and vomiting, leaving small children especially
vulnerable to death from dehydration, whereas liver disease
hepatitis E is particularly deadly for pregnant women.
In Niger's Diffa region - which has been hit by the conflict
and hosts about 250,000 uprooted Nigeriens and Nigerian refugees
- an outbreak of hepatitis E has killed at least 33 pregnant
women so far this year, said Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).
"To curb this type of outbreak, we know that our best asset
at the moment is ... water and sanitation activities," said
VĂctor Illanes of the aid group.
"But when the deficiencies are so high and the space to be
covered is as large as Diffa, it is difficult for these
activities to have an impact in the short term," he added.
Boko Haram's campaign to create an Islamic state is in its
eighth year with little sign of ending. It has claimed more than
20,000 lives and uprooted 2.7 million people across Lake Chad.
More than 5 million people in northeast Nigeria need food
aid, and about 1.5 million are believed to be on the brink of
famine, yet the United Nations this month had to cut emergency
food supplies for 400,000 people due to a lack of funding.
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