Over 47,000 pregnant women in Pak shelter camps

Fahmidah, a pregnant flood-affected woman at a makeshift camp in Fazilpur Saturday. Pic/AFP

More than 47,000 pregnant women affected by the floods in Pakistan are in shelter camps across Sindh province, local media citing the provincial health minister reported on Sunday. Sindh Health Minister Azra Pechuho has shared statistics of women affected by the flood. She said hundreds of thousands of people have contracted various diseases after the floods. The death toll since June has reached 1,290 with 29 people dying in the past 24 hours, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said on Saturday, reported Geo News.

On August 30, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), a sexual and reproductive health agency, said that at least 6,50,000 pregnant women, of whom 73,000 were expected to deliver this month across the country, in the flood-affected areas were in dire need of maternal health service.

The UN agency had also warned that many women and girls were at an increased risk of gender-based violence (GBV) as almost one million houses were damaged in the floods that spelt suffering for millions across Pakistan.

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