GENEVA, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Some 423,000 people in Pakistan need urgent health care after being affected by recent conflict and flooding, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

    WHO and its partners are requesting 9.76 million U.S. dollars from donors to undertake life-saving health responses to this humanitarian crisis, the Geneva-based UN agency said in a statement.

    According to the statement, outbreaks of communicable diseases, including acute watery diarrhea and respiratory infections, are of high risk due to large numbers of people forced into cramped, temporary housing where concerns exist over the safety of drinking water and sanitation.

    With malaria season starting, risks for a large-scale spread of malaria are high. Outbreaks of measles, one of the major killers of children, are also possible due to low immunization coverage in some areas.

    "Thousands of lives are at risk in Pakistan if we do not act now to provide urgent health care to those affected by these terrible floods or forced from their homes by violence," said Dr Eric Laroche, assistant director-general for WHO's Health Action in Crises Cluster.

    Pakistan's worst-hit areas by August's heavy monsoon rains were Peshawar, in the Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP), and Rajanpur, in Punjab province.

    Altogether some 300,000 people in these two areas were affected.

    Besides, violence in NWFP and another neighboring area has forced 123,000 people to flee in recent months.

    While a considerable number of displaced people have returned due to the Ramadan cease-fire, it is estimated that 400,000 more could be displaced if hostilities resume at the end of Ramadan (late September) or earlier.