In Case of Flood
Obviously, when flooding occurs there is an increase risk of water-borne diseases going around due to the excess water from the floods. Moreover, the risk increases in relocation areas or areas where people are housed temporarily due to the fact that they were forced to abandon their homes because of the flood waters.
During floods, one of the most common flood-related disease is cholera. By relocating huge numbers of people and cramming them in small confined areas, sanitation would certainly become a problem. The water and food supplies would become contaminated and people would likely develop infection of the gut causing chronic diarrhea and vomiting, both symptoms of cholera. Significant improvements shows that people may died as a result of cholera. One of the major considerations during floods and mass displacement of people is where to get clean water supply. Because floods can easily contaminate drinking-water facilities, diseases like typhoid fever can easily become an outbreak.
A partner of cholera is dysentery which is caused by parasites also from contaminated food and water. Nausea, loose bowel movement, weight loss, and occasional fever are the general symptoms of dysentery. Each one is potentially dangerous in itself, thus combining the two is really deadly.
During floods, the risk of drowning, having injuries and trauma are higher. Be careful during wading on flood waters and also maneuvering ourself in flooded areas. Also, watch out for hypothermia. Long exposure to the cold floodwaters can easily lead to it. Children are more prone to hypothermia than adults. They are other diseases that can be spread through the air, by direct contact or through contaminated body fluids. Some examples of communicable diseases include, tuberculosis, measles, pertussis, meningitis, and hepatitis B. Tularemia is an acute bacterial disease transmitted to humans by hard ticks, biting flies, and direct contact with infected wild animals such as rabbits, hares, muskrats, beavers and also Blackleg, caused by micro-organisms spread over fields by standing water, is a potentially serious postflood disease.
Vector-borne diseases result from infections transmitted to humans and other animals by blood-feeding arthropods, such as mosquitoes, ticks, and fleas. The vector-borne pathogens, which include viruses, rickettsiae, bacteria, protozoa, and worm parasites, spend part of their life cycle in a cold-blooded arthropod vector and thus are influenced by environmental change.
The treatment of cholera and dysentery are through antibiotics but since drugs don’t work that fast because of the resilience of the disease. Therefore, in cases where flood victims are diagnosed with cholera and dysentery, immediate rehydration would be the best approach to save their lives. But of course, improving sanitation in the evacuation areas and making sure that the water and food supplies are clean are the best ways to avoid a epidemic to occur. One of the major considerations during floods and mass displacement of people is where to get clean water supply. Because floods can easily contaminate drinking-water facilities, disease like typhoid fever can easily become an outbreak.
I really agree with Sharil Nizam and others that the most common disease which easily spread out is by using infected water. As we know that we are using water everyday and the chances is very high to get the diseases.
By Nooryani Dahlan G74482