Sicknesses are spreading among children living in the Kutupalong and Leda unofficial refugee camps. Anwer, a refugee committee member from Kutupalong makeshift camp, said that many children from ages 5 to 7 are getting sick with chicken pox, measles, pneumonia or coming down with fevers.
The Kutupalong makeshift camp is located on open hilly field. The houses, poorly constructed with plastic covered by leaves and branches, provide little shelter from the hot sun during the day and the frigid temperatures at night. The same conditions exist in Leda.
“Many refugee children have been suffering from chicken pox and measles since the first week of March. The affected children are being taken to the clinic of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) (for medical treatment),” said Anwer.
One community health worker, who is also a refugee, said that weather changes are one of the reasons the children are suffering from pneumonia or fever.
There are about 60,000 living in Kutupalong and more than 15,000 refugees in Leda. Nearly all of the camp’s residents are Rohingya refugees without official status that fled persecution from the Burmese government in their native home of Arakan state. In the unofficial camps they endure squalid and overcrowded conditions with little to no assistance from aid groups.
