GENEVA (Reuters) – The United Nations children’s agency (UNICEF) said on Friday there was a risk of “many more” child deaths in Pakistan from disease after floods claimed the lives of around 400.
The toll for children, estimated at 416 by national authorities, represents around a third of the total of 1,208 people killed amid record monsoon rains and melting glaciers in northern mountains.
“There is now a high risk of water-borne, deadly diseases spreading rapidly — diarrhoea, cholera, dengue, malaria,” UNICEF Pakistan Representative Abdullah Fadil told a Geneva press briefing.
“There is therefore a risk of many more child deaths,” he said.
(Reporting by Emma Farge; editing by Matthias Williams)
