Five more infants die in Mithi, raising this year’s death toll to 64

At least five infants lost their lives due to malnutrition and diseases at Civil Hospital Mithi — bringing this year’s toll of infant deaths in Sindh’s Thar desert to 64.

Talking to Dawn, the district health officer in Mithi informed that more than 11 thousand ailing children were brought to six different health facilities in the district for treatment since the beginning of this year.

According to the official figures, last year 479 minors lost their lives, a list which excludes data from the urban areas of Karachi and Hyderabad.

Health and Nutrition Development Society (HANDS) CEO Dr Shaikh Tanveer Ahmed and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) Haleem Adil Shaikh expressed their grave concerns over the unabated deaths of infants and asked the Sindh government to take initiatives in the light of a recent UN report on the worsening situation in Thar.

They urged that there was need to give special focus to the Thar region, where fatalities of minor children, pregnant women, and birds were being reported daily.

The UN commission stated that the situation in desert regions, including Thar, might slip to the level of a ‘humanitarian emergency’. The report added that main vulnerabilities pertaining to water crises, healthcare, and remoteness were the most crucial factors. The ailing infants’ parents complained of a lack of facilities in various government hospitals.

Source: Dawn