20-bed diarrhoea centre opens to treat Rohingyas

A 20-bed diarrhoea treatment centre has opened in Kutupalong Refugee Camp in Cox's Bazar on Monday.

According to a note issued by the UNHCR, the UN body 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, the organization will set a total of 80 beds up in diarrhoea treatment centres in three locations while it is set to open two more centres next week.

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 August 25 are now congregating to receive assistance.

Adding that this is a move to bring medical care closer to those in need, the note read: "At these smaller centres, refugees found to be suffering from moderate dehydration can be treated immediately, and those who require more intense therapy can be referred to the larger diarrhoea treatment centres."

UNHCR is also supporting an effort by the Ministry of Health to administer cholera vaccinations to refugees.

Cholera is endemic in Bangladesh and can easily spread any time hundreds of thousands of people live in close proximity without proper sanitation.

There are as yet no firm statistics on cases of acute watery diarrhoea among the newly arrived refugees, and we are taking action to try to prevent severe illness and deaths.

"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," added the report.

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. "It is vital to provide clean water so that people do not drink from or bathe in contaminated ponds and streams."