August 13, 2010 9:52 PM

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Disease outbreaks grave new risks in Pakistan

In Pakistan, disease outbreaks pose grave new risks to victims of country,s worst floods in decades, aid agencies said today. The United Nations is increasingly worried about water-borne diseases. There have been 36,000 suspected cases of potentially fatal acute watery diarrhoea reported so far. The floods, triggered by torrential monsoon downpours, have engulfed Pakistan's Indus river basin, killing more than 1,600people, forcing two million from their homes and disrupting the lives of about 14 million people, or 8 per cent of the population. Floods have roared down from the northwest to Punjab province to southern Sindh. The United Nations appealed for 459 million dollar in emergency aid and warned of a new wave of deaths if help didn't arrive soon.UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to visit Pakistan over the weekend to discuss the crisis with Pakistani leaders.

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