UN launches massive anti-cholera drive in Rohingya refugee camps
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THE United Nations launched one of its biggest ever cholera vaccination drives in the vast refugee camps of southeast Bangladesh Tuesday amid fears of an outbreak among nearly a million Rohingya refugees now living there.
Thousands of Rohingya men and women lined up in intense heat at makeshift health centers, many with young children in their arms, to receive the oral vaccine against the disease.
The UN is working with the Bangladesh government to vaccinate 650,000 people living in the sprawling camps against cholera, which spreads through dirty water and can kill if left untreated.
“These people lack most of the basic services — toilets, water sanitation and everything,” said UNICEF spokesman A. M. Sakil Faizullah.
“When we have this kind of situation, there’s a heavy possibility of a cholera outbreak.”
Nearly 520,000 Rohingya Muslims have arrived in Bangladesh since late August, fleeing a military crackdown in neighboring Myanmar’s Rakhine state that the UN has said likely amounts to ethnic cleansing.
Poor and overpopulated Bangladesh has struggled to cope with the influx of people, many of whom have to travel for days or even weeks to reach safety and arrive exhausted and malnourished.
The influx had slowed in recent weeks, but now appears to have picked up again and an estimated 11,000 new refugees arrived on Monday.
The UN refugee agency said Tuesday it was working with the Bangladesh authorities to set up a transit center in preparation for a fresh influx in the coming days.
Many of the new arrivals are from the Buthidaung district of Rakhine which lies relatively far from the border.
They said the army in Myanmar had prevented them from buying food, making it impossible for them to stay.
“Some said they fled torching and killings back home ... Others said they left in fear ahead of anticipated violence,” said Adrian Edwards, spokesman for the UN refugee agency.
On Monday, one distraught man arrived carrying the limp body of his infant son who had died as they crossed the Naf river that divides the two countries.
Dozens more are feared to have drowned when a boat packed with desperate refugees sank late on Sunday night.
Bangladesh police said yesterday that they had found 14 more bodies, taking the number of confirmed dead to 28, with scores more missing.
Across the border in Myanmar, hundreds of Rohingya were massed on the riverbank waiting to leave.
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