Thousands of families living with poor hygiene in displacement
camps or without clean water or sewage treatment in their
flood-damaged homes are receiving information from IOM about basic
hygiene and disease prevention on Global Hand Washing Day.

Twelve doctors and 16 nurses are providing around 10,000 flood
victims in Punjab and Sindh with information brochures about
personal hygiene, including boiling water, hand washing and
maintaining proper sanitation. They are also distributing hygiene
kits each containing toothpaste, tooth brushes and soap.

The initiative is taking place in girls' schools and
displacement camps in Muzaffargarh and Rajanpur districts in
Punjab, and in Thatta district in Sindh today.

"Basic hygiene measures can make a huge difference in people's
health," says Dr. Mudassar Ban Abad, a migration health physician
with IOM Pakistan.

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"Preparing drinking water properly and washing one's hands with
soap prevents infections and the transmission of diseases. We want
to tell people how they can stay healthy at nearly no cost," he
notes.

Sindh is one of the provinces worst affected by the devastating
floods in August and September, with wide areas in Dadu and
Qamber-Shahdadkot districts still under water. Over a million
houses in Sindh have been washed away or destroyed by the
floods.

In Punjab, where around half a million houses have been
destroyed or damaged by the floods, most of the people have
returned to their places of origin. But many lost all their
belongings and savings. Infrastructure for public services has been
severely damaged and people now need help to get medical treatment
and rebuild sanitation systems.

IOM's four rural health clinics in southern Sindh and in Punjab
have treated over 10,000 flood victims since they opened last
month. Most of the patients were treated for diarrhea, skin
diseases and suspected malaria.

The clinics are run by 10 doctors and 20 nurses, who regularly
provide outreach medical services to remote areas. Twice a week,
half of the team offers mobile treatment, in close coordination
with other aid organizations and district authorities. This allows
them to reach flood victims in spontaneous settlements on the banks
of the Indus River and patients in health clinics which were
damaged by the floods.

For more information on Global Hand Washing Day, please go to:
"http://www.globalhandwashingday.org/ghd_map/" target="_blank"
title="">http://www.globalhandwashingday.org/ghd_map/.

For more information on IOM's activities in Pakistan, to
download the IOM Appeal or to donate to IOM's flood response,
please go to: "/jahia/Jahia/pakistan" target="" title=
"">http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/pakistan.

For information on the Emergency Shelter Cluster, please go to:
"http://sites.google.com/site/shelterpak2010/" target="_blank"
title="">http://sites.google.com/site/shelterpak2010/.

For more information please contact:

Saleem Rehmat

IOM Islamabad

Tel: +92.300 856 0341

E-mail: "mailto:srehmat@iom.int">srehmat@iom.int

or

Eliane Engeler

Tel: +92.300 852 6357

E-mail: "mailto:eengeler@iom.int">eengeler@iom.int