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.
