Bangladesh: Cuts to refugees’ food rations will have serious health impact

Mothers who are malnourished and anaemic are at a higher risk of experiencing complications during childbirth, while their newborn babies are more likely to have poor health outcomes. Even at the current level of food rations, 28 per cent of babies born in Kutupalong hospital and Balukhali clinic have a low birthweight, heightening their chance of becoming sick and malnourished. 

Many refugees in the camps also suffer from chronic diseases such as heart disease, hypertension and type II diabetes. Doctors Without Borders currently provides care for a cohort of more than 4,500 patients. For non-communicable disease patients, a healthy diet is a critical part of managing their health conditions. Reduced access to adequate food would increase their reliance on medical care, potentially increasing demand for already overburdened health services in the camps. 

Health services in the camps are already under enormous pressure as they struggle to deal with the medical impacts of people’s dire living conditions, including frequent outbreaks of scabies, dengue fever and cholera – the result of poor sanitation, stagnant water and overflowing latrines.    

Doctors Without Borders is concerned that a reduction in food rations would also heighten the sense of desperation already prevalent throughout the camps and could drive more Rohingya to undertake highly dangerous sea and land journeys in search of a better life and a more hopeful future. 

Doctors Without Borders has provided medical care in the refugee camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district since 1992. Last year, Doctors Without Borders teams provided more than 750,000 outpatient consultations and admitted more than 22,000 patients for inpatient care.