Child dies as diarrhoea outbreak hits flood-stricken Bangladesh

Diarrhoea blamed on late monsoon floods has killed one child and stricken hundreds of others in south-western Bangladesh, relief officials said today.

Floods have ravaged much of Bangladesh’s southwest for the past two weeks, leaving at least 100,000 people stranded or homeless and destroying crops, roads and buildings, officials said.

An outbreak of diarrhoea, caused by drinking polluted water, has emerged in the flood-hit districts of Satkhira, Jessore and Magura, they said.

One child died of diarrhoea in Magura, 104 kilometres west of national capital Dhaka, said a health official.

Doctors, meanwhile, have treated another 500 people, mostly children, for diarrhoea in Magura and neighbouring Jessore and Satkhira districts, the official said.

Bangladesh is still struggling to recover from massive floods in July and August.

Those floods – the worst in six years – covered half the country, killing at least 766 people and affecting more than 30 million, many of them left without homes and jobs.

The World Bank and the Asian Development Bank have estimated the damage at $2.2bn (€1.8bn).