Flood death toll nears 500

At least 38 people died due to flood-related causes in 24 hours till 1:00pm yesterday, raising the death toll to 481.
Among the dead, 33 died due to drowning, two died of diarrhoea and three died from snakebites, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) control room.
A total of 4,088 people were diagnosed with diarrhoea in government hospitals and 1,045 were admitted to International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases and Research (ICDDR,B) in the capital.
"The rate of admission of diarrhoea patients at ICDDR,B has been between 900 and 1,000 in every 24 hours for the last one week. Almost all were admitted in a critical condition. So, we still can't say that the diarrhoea situation is improving," said Dr Azharul Islam, head of Short Stay Unit of ICDDR,B.
During the1998 floods, the rate of admission of the diarrhoea patient was maximum 927 every 24 hours, he added.
Although the government set up diarrhoea units in different public medical college and hospitals to ease the pressure at ICDDR,B, a handful of patients went to those units for treatment.
Between 8:00am Tuesday and 8:00am Wednesday, some 15 patients were admitted to Shaheed Suhrawardi Hospital, while only six patients were admitted to Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH).
As of yesterday evening, 5 diarrhoea patients were admitted to National Institute of Diseases of Chest and Hospital, 7 to Mitford Hospital and 20 to Haji Camp at Ashkona while 132 turned up from that camp.
The DGHS control room said 272 patients were transferred to public hospitals from ICDDR,B. However, the hospital sources did not agree with the DGHS control room claim.
The DGHS control room claimed that 43 diarrhoea patients had been shifted to Haji Camp diarrhoea unit. But when contacted, the Haji camp diarrhoea unit officials disagreed with the DGHS control room's claim and said that no patient was brought in the Camp from ICDDR,B yesterday evening.
"Rather, we sent a critical patient to ICDDR, B," said Maj Naufel of Haji Camp diarrhoea unit.
According to the DGSH control room, 1,309 people have been infected with respiratory diseases, 1,358 with skin diseases, 270 with eye problems, and 4,840 with various other diseases.
Meanwhile, Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre (FFWC) said floodwater in the central and south-central districts might recede slower due to a land depression over West Bengal and adjoining areas of Bangladesh.
The overall flood situation in the country is improving and the situation is likely to improve significantly in next two days, added the FFWC.
According to flood control room of Press Information Department, till yesterday, the flood has affected over 1.6 crore people in 251 upazilas of 39 districts.
It damaged some 59,501 houses completely and 8,62,657 houses partially. Crops on 6,79,615 acres of land have been damaged completely while crops on 6,78,1388 acres of land have been damaged partially.
Furthermore, the flood damaged 2,558 km of road network completely and 21,334 km partially. A total of 510 educational institutions have been completely damaged and 6,517 educational institutions have been affected partially.
Besides, the flood damaged 79 km of embankments completely and 716 of them partially. Some 72 bridges and culverts were damaged completely while 1,536 were damaged partially.