Tsunami:
WHO's concern over water- borne diseases
by Arunoday Prakash
New
Delhi: The primary concern of the World Health Organisation
(WHO) in the aftermath of the Tsunami is safe drinking water
and water borne diseases. The WHO task force is focusing
mainly on disease surveillance and technical advice to countries
on good practices in outbreak situations and to reduce environmental
and public health risks as well support in needs assessment.
Talking exclusively to ANI, Mrs.Harsharan Kaur Pandey, the
PIO of WHO admitted that at the moment the primary concern
of WHO at the hour are water borne diseases. "In the aftermath
of Tsunami, WHO is really concerned about the water borne
diseases. We are aiming at reducing the risk of any outbreak
by advising countries on good practices," said Pandey. At
the moment, WHO has started to help the nations, which have
seeked its help and support. Interestingly, India has not
asked for its support and thus WHO, at the moment, is not
working for the Indian regions which have been the victims
of the deadly Tsunami. "We are an international agency,
we help only those countries which ask for it. India is
yet to seek any help, thus we are not operating in the areas,"
said she.
WHO
is working overtime for the countries, which are standing
there at its doorstep for help and assistance. The agency
is shipping four emergency health kits for Sri Lanka, sufficient
to support 10,000 people for three months. "We are shipping
a consignment to Sri Lanka, it consists of health kits.
Four kits are being shipped; each consists of different
useful medical accessories and equipments. They consist
of medicines, disposables and instruments, suuficients to
support 10,000 people for three months period," informed
Oandey. "Further we are procuring water purifying tablets,
ORS and antibiotics, as required by Maldives. We are doing
it on emergency basis," she added. However, in Indonesia
the full impact of the tragedy is still to be assessed,
due to the complete devastation. They have asked for life
saving medicines, anti-malarial and antibiotics. We are
also providing them with rapid health needs through our
UN Disaster Response team," she informed. "In Thailand,
health teams were dispatched within 24 hours to affected
areas to assess the situation," added Pandey.
When
asked whether India has asked for the help or not, she replied
in a negative. "No India has not asked for our help," she
said. "The government of India has taken major efforts to
respond to the need of the hour, army has been mobilized
for swift action. But we would not step in until the government
asks for help and assistance," said Pandey, when asked about
their response to India and the measures taken by India.
The WHO official also admitted that the management of dead
bodies is a major concern. But the immediate concern of
the agency was something else. "We are very concerned about
the diseases as well as the huge number of peoples displaced.
People are being housed in makeshift houses and shelters.
They need to have adequate supplies of water and sanitation,
we are much concerned about that," said Pandey. Talking
about the management of dead bodies the PIO of the organisation
said," Dead bodies are major problems. There management
in proper order is very important. If a dead body is infected
by some disease, it becomes a reason for the out break of
several diseases, it's very important to manage them very
carefully." "Our agency will also help in the development
of proposals for present and medium term restoration of
public health services, as well as for procurement of life
saving drugs and water purification tablets and chlorine.
We are also making available guidelines on management of
dead bodies and provision of psycho- social help to people
to deal with the trauma of the recent event," said Pandey.
TN
dumps bodies into pits as epidemic fears rise (Go
To Top)
Vailankanni
village (Tamil Nadu): Truckloads of dead bodies were
hurled into hurriedly-dug pits in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday
morning as state authorities battle to contain spread of
epidemics. The stench of decomposing corpses spread over
the makeshift burial ground in Nagapattinam town in Tamil
Nadu is to be felt to be believed. The state has been the
worst hit with over 3500 casualties. State officials have
given up trying to count the dead and are disposing of the
dead bodies as quickly as possible. About three- quarters
of the dead were women and children. Ironically, the historic
church believed to have been built by shipwrecked survivors
was left untouched by the surging waves. It has now been
converted into a relief centre. Survivors are also reaching
the church to get information about their dead kith and
kin. Photographs of some of the dead have been put up here
for identification.
Tsunami-hit
Kerala's little boys cremate their elders (Go
To Top)
Alappad
(Kerala): Scenes of grief and pain are visible in the
village of Alappad, where young kids light the pyres of
their fathers and grandfathers because there is no one left
to perform the last rites. The stench emanating from decomposed
corpses spread across the cremation ground refuses to evaporate,
even as the area's residents fearfully anticpates the possibility
of fresh quakes and tsunamis huddled together. Over 132
people have died in the state. The ocean surge was triggered
on Sunday morning by a 9.0- magnitude undersea earthquake
off the Indonesian island of Sumatra, spreading in an arc
of death across the Indian Ocean and striking nations from
Indonesia to Sri Lanka, and beyond to Africa.
Jet
Li saves daughter and himself from killer tsunami (Go
To Top)
Washington:
Hollywood action star Jet Li played a real life hero
by saving his daughter and himself from the killer tsunami
that wreaked death and devastation on Southern Asian shores.
Li and his daughter were vacationing in a resort in the
Maldives when the 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck near Sumatra
on early Sunday. EOnline quoting Hong Kong's 'Apple Daily'
newspaper reported that the martial artist and his daughter
were in their hotel lobby when a wall of water surged into
the building. Li managed to hang on to a piece of floating
furniture and sustained a foot injury, but managed to save
his daughter and escape relatively unharmed. The 'Fist Of
Legend' star then called his agent and informed him that
he had managed to escape from the deadly tsunami.
New
York supermodel survives tsunami in Thailand (Go
To Top)
New
York: New York Supermodel Petra Nemcova survived the
killer Asian tsunami by clinging to the top of a palm tree
for eight hours, while bearing the pain of a broken pelvis
and the tragedy of her boyfriend Simon Atlee being swallowed
by the fierce sea waves. "This huge wave just pulled us
out of the house. It was so powerful I couldn't get up.
I couldn't get out of it. This huge wave just pulled us
out of the house," said Nemcova, who is currently recuperating
from her injury at a hospital in Thailand. "People were
screaming and kids were screaming all over the place, screaming,
'Help, help.' And after a few minutes, you didn't hear the
kids anymore," added a shaken Nemcova. According to The
New York Daily News, Nemcova was enjoying the sun and sand
with her fashion photographer boyfriend at the Thai resort
of Khao Lak when Sunday's catastrophe struck Asian shores.
"I heard people screaming and I looked out the window and
people were jumping out of the way, jumping into the pool.
I was screaming, 'On the roof! On the roof!' I tried to
go on the roof but I got sucked away," Nemcova said. The
couple's wooden bungalow was torn apart by gigantic waves,
which sent them sprawling into a churning sea of debris,
after which Atlee was swept away in the sea. "I just tried
to survive and tried to think positive. I was so broken,
I couldn't walk. There were so many people with horrible
injuries, with blood everywhere. It was like a war movie,"
explained Nemcova. "I can't find Simon. It was horrible.
I'm very lucky, but I can't find Simon," added Nemcova.
