Three more children die at Mithi hospital in drought-hit Thar

MITHI: Three more children died at Mithi Civil Hospital in Tharparkar within 48 hours increasing death toll of children in drought-hit region to 53 this month, ARY News reported on Sunday.

Undernourishment and other health problems in the desert district continued to take toll of human lives in the area.

Total death toll of children in Thar dying from various health related issues in Sindh’s Tharparker region continues to soar with three more deaths of children in civil hospital.

The death toll of the kids has reached to 53 in February, while 120 in the ongoing year, the hospital sources said.

Every year hundreds of children die due to malnutrition, various infections and lack of proper medical facilities and medicines in the region, health department sources said.

“Pakistan is the riskiest place to be born as measured by its newborn mortality rate,” a report stated. “A baby born in Pakistan is almost 50 times more likely to die during his or her first month than a baby born in Japan, Iceland and Singapore.”

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah in October last year had directed the health department to set up medical camps so as to deal with with the health issues as a result of drought-like situation in Tharparkar.

While presiding over a high level-meeting, Shah had asked health department to seek assistance of medical universities in providing medical facilities to the people of Thar.