<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Pakistani health official are warning of a looming health crisis in the country after devastating recent floods.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Thirty-three million people have been affected by the flooding, which has left nearly 1,500 dead since the middle of June.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 1rem;">As rescue and evacuation efforts continue in parts of the country, health experts are reporting a surge in dengue, malaria and severe gastric infections.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Many displaced people are living near stagnant water. Dengue fever is already claiming lives and cases are increasing by the day.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 1rem;">About 3,830 cases of dengue fever have been reported by health officials in southern Sindh province, with at least nine deaths, but there are concerns this may be a conservative estimate.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Overall the situation in Sindh is very bad, we are organising medical camps all over the province. Most of the cases we are seeing now are of dengue patients followed closely by malaria," Dr Abdul Ghafoor Shoro, secretary general of the Pakistan Medical Association, told the BBC.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The dengue burden is the same all over the province and it's increasing daily. When we checked with the laboratories, the suspected cases are around 80% of tests being done."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Dr Shoro, who has been treating scores of dengue patients at Agha Khan hospital in Karachi, fears the situation is only going to worsen in the coming weeks.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It's been more than two months since the floods began and yet across Pakistan, thousands of villages are still submerged, leaving countless families displaced.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">With roads in many remote communities still unusable because of water damage, some communities are forced to rely on mobile vans for their health care, but those are few and far between.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Muna Sajjad has brought her one-year-old, Sakina, to a mobile clinic near Sehwan in Sindh province, hoping she will finally get medical care.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sakina has been unwell for some days with a gastric infection. Her mother holds her tightly to her chest to try to settle her, but Sakina won't stop crying - she is dehydrated, vomiting and in pain.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Two of my children are unwell, I don't have any money to care for them, I lost everything in the floods," says Muna. "If I had not made it to the clinic, I'm sure Sakina would have died. We have no food to even feed ourselves and our sick children."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Inside the packed van, there are sick children and adults everywhere and not enough hands to care for them. Doctors tell us they are overstretched. Source: BBC</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh </div>