Double whammy: After flood fury, diseases ravage Fazilka villages

More than three weeks after flood water from river Sutlej entered Fazilka villages depiction many homeless and destroying position crops in thousands of acres, the locals are battling an onslaught of diseases the stagnant water in several areas joint with the rotting foliage has become an ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes.

Combined with the lack of accessibility of potable water, the villagers, some of them still waiting out the flood sitting on the rooftops of their houses, are declining prey to malaria, pneumonia, viral fever and skin related ailments even the livestock contain started contracting diseases like haemorrhagic septicaemia, worms in the stomach and other disorders. 

The water has started receding now, but most of the move toward roads are still under water hampering the relief work the doctors, administrative officers and additional government officials are using tractors and at times even the JCB machines to reach the flooded villages to set up medical camps the gravity of the situation might be gauged from the fact that on an average 600 patients visit the medical camps set up at Mahtam Nagar, Gatti number 1 and additional areas everyday an equal number of cattle heads are as well being treated everyday. 

CDC Report find Adult Vaccination Rates Still Lagging

Although there have been slight increase in some adult vaccination rates, U.S. health officials report Wednesday that those rates are still not what they should be. "We wanted vaccinations as infants and toddlers, but we also require vaccinations as adults," Dr. Susan J. Rehm, medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, said during an afternoon news conference Wednesday. Rehm noted that vaccination rates among children are very good. "Because of that, we observe only a fraction of the vaccine avoidable diseases we saw in the past, and a part of the deaths and sufferings from these diseases," she said. "But our advance will be undone if we do not keep our immunity as adults."

Speaking at the similar news conference, Dr. Melinda Wharton, deputy director of the National Center for vaccination and Respiratory Diseases at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and avoidance, announce some new data on adult immunization rates. The rate of reporting for the pneumococcal vaccine, which is advocate for adults over the age of 65 to prevent pneumonia, has remain at 65 percent since 2008, Wharton said. However, the rate of vaccination among blacks and Hispanics is far under this, she added.

The rate of adults being vaccinated with the newer vaccines is rising, Wharton said. The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine was first recommended in 2007 for young women to avoid cervical cancer. By 2009, 17 percent of women aged 19 to 26 had conventional at least one shot three are necessary, Wharton noted. "This is up 6.2 percent, compare with 2008," she said. Another new vaccine is the herpes zoster vaccine, which prevent shingles and is optional for adults aged 60 and over. Coverage with this vaccine is up a small from 2008, from 8 percent to 10 percent, Wharton said.

Immunizing kids against diseases key to achieve child survival goal

Global health and development chiefs in New York have said that immunizing children beside preventable diseases is critical to reach United Nations-led goals to reduce child deaths. At an event hosted by UNICEF, the Republic of Kenya and the GAVI Alliance, health ministers, donors and the heads of UN agencies called for the introduction of latest vaccines that can dramatically reduce deaths due to diarrhoea and pneumonia, the two biggest killers of children under five. Kenya's Minister of Public Health and Sanitation, Dr Rose Mugo, said her county's extended immunization program has decreased deaths among children from 115 per 1,000 live births in 2003 to 75 per 1,000 live births today a 35 percent reduction.

"When we are able to introduce new vaccines against diarrhoea and pneumonia we are sure that the number will drop even further," she said. Dr Guillermo Gonzalez, Nicaragua's former health minister and present Special Advisor to the President, said his country was reaching up to 95 percent of children with routine Immunization. "Since we introduced the rotavirus vaccine three years ago we have experiential 35 to 40 percent reductions in mortality," he said. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization, said she was proud to guide an organization, which together with UNICEF was one of the "midwives" that gave birth to the GAVI Alliance in 2000.

"Vaccines are one of the mainly cost effective health interventions and one of the best buys. We petition to the generosity of donors 'open your purses'," she said. "Diarrhoea and pneumonia are the two biggest killers of children. If you invest you can save millions." Government donors from Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States also pledged to keep sustaining GAVI's global Immunization effort. The United Kingdom's Secretary of State for International Development, Andrew Mitchell, MP, said it was a "global scandal" that children were still failing from vaccine-preventable diseases, and donors needed to do more.

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