By Dr. Nayyer Ali

The Other Earthquakes

 

I went to a fundraiser organized by Islamic Relief last week for victims of the earthquake. Hundreds of Muslims had gathered for iftar at the Anaheim Convention Center, still overwhelmed by the escalating scale of the disaster. As of this writing, the death toll has exceeded 50,000, with over 75,000 seriously injured, and more than two million homeless.
The most critical needs are for surgeries for patients with crushed and broken limbs, and for winterized tents for the homeless. The thought of spending a Himalayan winter in a tent is frightening enough, but to have to face it without any shelter is a death sentence. In the face of this urgent need, the community gathering raised about 700,000 dollars, with 100,000 coming from a single anonymous donor. His or her reward is with God, and that donor saved many lives in this month of Ramadan. There were many who gave 10 or 20 thousand dollars. The outpouring of generosity was a bright spot in an otherwise dark ocean.
In Pakistan there has also been great generosity. Over 6 billion rupees of cash or goods have been donated to the President’s Relief Fund. To put that in perspective, that amounts to about 0.1% of Pakistan’s GDP. An equivalent amount of giving by Americans would raise over 10 billion dollars. Foreign countries have pledged about 600 million dollars, while individual donors are also offering substantial amounts of cash.
What has moved the entire world to act is the scale of the disaster. We all see this human tragedy on our TV screens and read about it in the paper or in e-mails circulated by eyewitnesses. But there is another earthquake that also struck Pakistan and killed over 50,000 children in the last two months. The awful part is that it is going to strike again next month and every month thereafter for the next decade. And yet no one seems to notice or care much, even though the vast toll is mostly preventable.
What is this earthquake called, and why is it so deadly? It goes by the name of “infant mortality”, and it refers to the death of babies less than one year old. In Pakistan, there are about four million new babies born every year. And of those, about 8% die before their first birthday. That means 320,000 babies every year die for no reason. Six times the number of deaths caused by Kashmir quake.
Why do so many babies die compared to America, where less than 1% die in the first year of life? Human newborns are very delicate creatures, and in pre-modern times over 20% would die in the first year of life. They die from three causes: malnutrition, diarrhea with resulting fatal dehydration, and infections. Newborns have immature and weak immune systems, and are susceptible to both excessive cold and heat.
But when societies tackle these problems, infant mortality collapses. Immunizations, adequate maternal and infant nutrition, minimal prenatal care, breastfeeding, and antibiotics when needed make a huge difference. None of this requires doctors, and can be delivered by health workers with much lower levels of training.
The other big killer of infants, diarrhea, can also be treated easily. It turns out that simply giving water to a dehydrated infant doesn’t work, as the intestines don’t absorb the necessary salt to go with it. A breakthrough twenty years ago showed that a mix of water, salt, and sugar, boiled and sterilized, was as effective as an intravenous drip in treating life-threatening dehydration. As long as the infant was kept hydrated, they would live long enough to resolve the diarrhea. This “oral rehydration therapy” is no magic, but needs to be taught one to one to moms in villages.
The reason why the death of over 300,000 Pakistani infants this year makes no headlines, results in no fundraisers, and generates no frantic e-mails, is that the infants who die are from the most marginal parts of society. They are the children of the rural poor, and they die quietly in their small villages one by one. It is a scandal and an outrage that Pakistan has such a high infant mortality rate, even higher than India or Bangladesh. With serious effort, and adequate resources, infant mortality could be cut in half in five years, saving over half a million babies. Let us do all we can for the victims of the recent quake, but let us not forget that a far greater tragedy continues cutting a deadly path through Pakistan’s children. It too must be stopped. Comments can reach me at Nali@socal.rr.com.


 



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