title: Clinical illnesses and causes of death in a Burmese refugee camp in Bangladesh.
abstract: In 1978 almost 200 000 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 174 201 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.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001459:Bangladesh; D002648:Child; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology / Q000401:mortality; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009017:Morbidity; D009026:Mortality; D002052:Myanmar / Q000208:ethnology; D012036:Refugees