Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, Aug 24 (UNI) The Rohingya refugees continue to be vulnerable despite concerted efforts by the Bangladesh Government, WHO and health partners over last several months.
The efforts have helped save thousands of lives, and prevented and rapidly curtailed deadly disease outbreaks among the nearly one million Rohingya refugees, but they remain vulnerable even today with their evolving health needs, and severe funding crunch threatening continuity of life saving health services in their camps.
“Unprecedented efforts have been made in the last year and in the most challenging conditions. Deadly diseases such as cholera have been prevented, and measles and diphtheria curtailed rapidly with quick roll-out and scale-up of health services and mass vaccination campaigns. It is remarkable that not only has the mortality rate among the Rohingyas remained lower than expected in an emergency of such a scale, it has also reduced significantly in the last six months,” said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia, commending the Government of Bangladesh and health partners’ work on the ground.