UK medics to help Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh
London: A team of British medical staff is travelling to Bangladesh to help tackle an outbreak of diphtheria affecting Rohingya Muslim refugee camps, the media reported on Thursday.
More than 40 doctors, nurses and firefighters will arrive at the fishing port Cox's Bazar following a request from the World Health Organisation (WHO), reports the BBC.
Cox's Bazar is home to more than 600,000 Rohingya refugees who have fled violence in bordering Myanmar.
The British government said the deployment was "another proud moment for the NHS (National Health Service)".
This is the first deployment of Britain's emergency medical team (EMT) since it was certified by the WHO in 2016.
The staff will be at the camps for six weeks working to fight the spread of diphtheria, as up to 160 new cases of the disease were being reported every day.
The highly contagious disease has already killed at least 27 people, according to health officials.
As of December 21, the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said it had seen more than 2,000 suspected cases in its health facilities. The majority of patients were between five and 14 years old, the BBC reported.
An estimated 620,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh following persecution from the Burmese military in their native state of Rakhine, since August.
The UN described the military offensive in Rakhine, which provoked the exodus, as a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing".
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Class V student in TN thrashed by cook, assistant for demanding egg
Tiruvannamalai (Tamil Nadu), Apr 4 (PTI): A nutritious meal cook and another person were arrested by the police on Friday for thrashing a class V student with broom, here, after the child demanded egg, the state government said.
A video of the purported incident has gone viral, where the boy is seen being beaten up with a broom by the two.
Social Welfare and Women Rights Minister, P Geetha Jeevan, made it clear the Stalin-led government will not tolerate any act of violence against children.
In a social media update, Jeevan said the incident happened at a primary school in Polur union in the district where the cook Lakshmi and an assistant, Muniammal "beat up a student who asked for an egg as part of the nutritious meal."
They were suspended on April 3 and later, criminal action was initiated against them and the two were arrested, she said.
A state government release said an enquiry was initiated following the viral video and after departmental action, the two women were booked under relevant sections of BNS and the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 and subsequently arrested.
திருவண்ணாமலை அரசு துவக்க பள்ளியில் சத்துணவு போடும்போது முட்டையை கேட்ட மாணவனை துடைப்பு கட்டையில் அடிக்கும் சத்துணவு ஊழியர்.... தயவு செய்து நடவடிக்கை எடுக்க வேண்டும். @Anbil_Mahesh pic.twitter.com/p51p12jkeb
— தங்க.காளிப்பாண்டி (@sureshkalipandi) April 4, 2025
