Clinical Illnesses and Causes of Death in a Burmese Refugee Camp in Bangladesh

In 1978 almost 200000 Burmese refugees entered Bangladesh. Thirteen camps were set up for refugees. Data for the camp at Leda is presented here. There were four medical clinics; including a diarrhoea clinic operated by the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh. The four cl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of epidemiology 1983-01, Vol.12 (4), p.460-464
Main Authors: KHAN, MOSLEM UDDIN, MUNSHI, M H
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Air. Soil. Water. Waste. Feeding
Bangladesh
Biological and medical sciences
Child
Diarrhea - epidemiology
Diarrhea - microbiology
Diarrhea - mortality
Environment. Living conditions
Female
General aspects
Humans
Infant
Male
Medical sciences
Morbidity
Mortality
Myanmar - ethnology
Public health. Hygiene
Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine
Refugees
Tropical medicine
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Summary:In 1978 almost 200000 Burmese refugees entered Bangladesh. Thirteen camps were set up for refugees. Data for the camp at Leda is presented here. There were four medical clinics; including a diarrhoea clinic operated by the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh. The four clinics recorded a total of 174201 visits by the refugees, of which 28% were for watery diarrhoea, 32% for dysentery and 40% for other illnesses. Of 2321 diarrhoea stools cultured. 29.2% yielded pathogens of which 22% were Shigellae alone. Coliform count of water was extremely high. The death rate (89/1000/year) was higher than the birth rate (28/1000/year). Most of the deaths were among infants (640), children (357) and old people (131). Main causes of death were clinical diarrhoea (11.8%), fever (23%) and poor nutrition (52%). Prompt arrangements for food, identifying the vulnerable groups, and proper sanitation perhaps could have reduced the number of deaths considerably.
ISSN:0300-5771
1464-3685
DOI:10.1093/ije/12.4.460