Health worries mount for Pakistan quake victims

MUZAFFARABAD – Sickness is increasing among Pakistani earthquake survivors, a UN official said yesterday, after the government dramatically increased the death toll from the disaster.

The government said on Wednesday the toll had jumped to 73 276 dead from a figure of 57 600 given a day earlier. The sharp rise could be related to concerted efforts to clear debris since the Oct.8 quake, a top relief official said.Pakistani Kashmir and adjoining North West Frontier Province bore the brunt of the 7,6 magnitude quake, which also seriously injured more than 69 000.It was the strongest to hit South Asia in 100 years and left more than three million people in need of emergency shelter with a bitter Himalayan winter approaching.The United Nations, heading an international relief effort, says donors have failed to provide sufficient funds for emergency aid work.It says that as many people as died in the quake could perish in the winter unless help reaches them fast.”The situation is quite desperate,” the chief UN disaster coordinator, Rashid Khalikov, told Reuters in Muzaffarabad, the devastated capital of Pakistani Kashmir.”We have noticed a sharp increase in acute respiratory infection that can lead to pneumonia,” he said.Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf this week urged survivors living in communities high in the mountains to move to lower ground for the winter, saying they would not survive in emergency tent shelters.- Nampa-ReutersThe sharp rise could be related to concerted efforts to clear debris since the Oct.8 quake, a top relief official said.Pakistani Kashmir and adjoining North West Frontier Province bore the brunt of the 7,6 magnitude quake, which also seriously injured more than 69 000.It was the strongest to hit South Asia in 100 years and left more than three million people in need of emergency shelter with a bitter Himalayan winter approaching.The United Nations, heading an international relief effort, says donors have failed to provide sufficient funds for emergency aid work.It says that as many people as died in the quake could perish in the winter unless help reaches them fast.”The situation is quite desperate,” the chief UN disaster coordinator, Rashid Khalikov, told Reuters in Muzaffarabad, the devastated capital of Pakistani Kashmir.”We have noticed a sharp increase in acute respiratory infection that can lead to pneumonia,” he said.Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf this week urged survivors living in communities high in the mountains to move to lower ground for the winter, saying they would not survive in emergency tent shelters. – Nampa-Reuters