Post-tsunami health care in dire condition: WHO
Post-tsunami health care in dire condition: WHO
Agence France-Presse, Bangkok
Health experts warned on Friday it could take years to rebuild
health infrastructure in tsunami-devastated parts of Asia where
millions of people face potential widespread outbreaks of
disease.
In some places 60 percent of clinics and hospitals have been
destroyed by the waves, resulting in massive deaths among medical
workers, said the World Health Organization's (WHO) Southeast
Asia director Samlee Plianbangchang.
"One military hospital (in Aceh) had about 100 medical
personnel including doctors, but after the tsunami only 10 of
them survived," Samlee told reporters.
"Basic health services should be rehabilitated by the end of
2006."
He said the lack of basic health facilities was greatly
amplifying the risk of large scale disease outbreaks in the wake
of the tsunamis.
"We are far from ensuring no more life will be lost. We are on
high alert for possible disease outbreaks," he said, adding up to
five million people had been displaced by the disaster.
Samlee said the greatest immediate challenge was providing
clean drinking water in countries such as Indonesia and Sri
Lanka, which along with other hard-hit areas faced outbreaks of
dysentery and malaria, among other diseases.
"The situation across the region is ripe for cholera," said
Samlee.
The WHO's Thailand director William Aldis said the kingdom had
been one of the only countries capable of staging a rapid health
response as its medical infrastructure had survived largely
intact.
"Thai health workers processed over 8,000 injured people. Only
three people out of every 1,000 died from their injuries," he
said. "This is amazing mass casualty management."
But he said psychological trauma was proving to be just as
pressing an issue in Thailand and throughout the region, where
the WHO was working with governments to ensure long-term
counseling for survivors.
"Of 400 students (at one Thai school) 300 are either dead or
missing. So when we try to imagine the psychological state of the
children who survived it's unimaginable," he said.
The number of people killed when an earthquake and tsunamis
devastated Indian Ocean coastlines on December 26 shot up past
165,000 Friday as Indonesia confirmed nearly 20,000 more deaths.
The death toll in Indonesia, which bore the brunt of the
disaster, climbed to 113,306, the social affairs ministry's
relief coordination center told AFP. This was up from the
previous day's tally of 94,200.
The United Nations has warned that tens of thousands more dead
may be as yet unaccounted for in Indonesia.