With more than half a million Rohingya refugees now in Bangladesh, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, Bangladesh public health authorities and other partners are working on several fronts to treat patients and contain an outbreak of diarrhoeal disease.
A 20-bed diarrhoea treatment centre was opened on Monday in Kutupalong Refugee Camp in the southeast of the country where the refugees who have been living there since 1992 .
UNHCR has gathered national and international NGOs under the banner of the government’s Refugee Health Unit to run the centres.
“By the end of this week, we will have a total of 80 beds in diarrhoea treatment centres in three locations, and we plan to open two more centres next week. As of today, our staff, working with refugee volunteers, who will fan out into the Kutupalong Refugee Camp and nearby informal settlements to find people who might be sick but have not sought treatment,” said UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic in Geneva on Tuesday. UNHCR this week also plans to open medical consultation centres with attached oral rehydration “corners” throughout the huge (2,000-acre or 809-hectare) Kutupalong Extension Site where many of the estimated 507,000 refugees who have arrived since 25 August are now congregating to receive assistance.
UNHCR is also supporting an effort by the Ministry of Health to administer cholera vaccinations to refugees.
“We have seen an increasing trend of diarrhoeal disease cases, including cases of diarrhoea with severe dehydration. So far, refugees with these conditions have been treated at clinics run by UNHCR and other agencies, and at local public health facilities,” said the Spokesperson.
Measures to prevent the spread of disease and cut the rate of severe illness and death also include installation of 32 shallow tube wells, and 250 latrines so far, which UNHCR accomplished with the help of partners.
