Afghanistan: Cold kills 54 Afghan children in northeast - Possible ARI/Pneumonia involvement

[Ronan Kelly]

Afghanistan Cold kills 35 Afghan children in northeast: official
Report? Agence France-Presse
KABUL, February 27, 2012 (AFP) - Severe cold weather has killed 35 children in the past two days in northeastern Afghanistan, an official said Monday.

The children died in four remote districts of Badakhshan province after the roads to districts were closed by heavy snow.
...
http://reliefweb.int/node/479261

 

[Ronan Kelly]

Re: Afghanistan: Cold kills 35 Afghan children in northeast

Re: Afghanistan: Cold kills 35 Afghan children in northeast

Afghanistan
Winter Child Mortality in Badakhshan Province
Incident Report No. 1
29/02/2012

I. HIGHLIGHTS/KEY PRIORITIES
1. 54 children have died due to ARI / Pneumonia in 4 remote and inaccessible districts of Badakhshan province.
2. Medicine, blankets and children?s clothes are transported by truck, horse and on foot to the districts. Access is hampered by snow, ice and high altitude.
3. Mobile medical teams provide emergency medical assistance.
4. Communities are drought affected and show high levels of malnutrition. Villages are snow-bound six months per year. Food and NFIs have been pre-positioned and contingency stocks established.

II. Situation Overview
54 children under 5 years have died due to ARI / Pneumonia in four remote districts of Badakhshan province. 19 out of the 54 deaths are not verified and no autopsies have been performed on any of the
cases. The cause is not yet confirmed as pneumonia, hypothermia, acute respiratory illness or if related to severe malnutrition. No further reports about child deaths have been received so far. Winter related child
mortality reports are received from four districts: Kohistan, Khwahan, Raghistan and Yawan. The districts are very isolated, extremely remote and surrounded by high mountains with altitudes between 1,400 and 3,000
meters. Many villages can only be reached on small trails by horse or on foot. Access by vehicle is only possible in summer. Many villages are completely inaccessible for up to seven months. Affected districts are snow-bound for up to six months. The affected districts are chronically vulnerable and in 2011 were affected by drought. The child deaths have happened at the end of the seasonal hunger gap.

...
http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefwe... afg_IncRep_winter_child_ mortality_ badk.pdf

 

[Ronan Kelly]

Re: Afghanistan: Cold kills 54 Afghan children in northeast - Possible ARI/Pneumonia involvement

Afghanistan Emergencies Taking a Deadly Toll in Badakhshan
Report? Medair
Afghanistan?s harshest winter in 15 years leaves families struggling to survive. A series of recent avalanches have killed more than 90 people in Badakhshan province, an extremely isolated mountain region in northeast Afghanistan.

While relief efforts continue to assist avalanche survivors, snowbound villages throughout the province also desperately need health care and nutrition as their food supplies run low and as increased cases of pneumonia and other illnesses ravage the population.

In Darang, a village of 400 families situated near the Tajikistan border, 29 children under the age of five have reportedly died in the past month. Medair staff travelled three hours by horseback to reach Darang and found children suffering from acute malnutrition, pneumonia, and other health complications.

...
http://reliefweb.int/node/484309