WHO sends 100,000 body bags to Myanmar as corpses rot
Pastor Dale Morgan
WHO sends 100,000 body bags to Myanmar as corpses rot*
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by Staff Writers
Bangkok (AFP) May 13, 2008
The World Health Organisation said Tuesday it had sent 100,000 body bags
to cyclone-hit Myanmar, as experts warned that rotting corpses remain
uncollected and pose a major health risk.
The United Nations' health arm said the body bags are among shipments of
30,000 surgical masks and 30,000 gloves that have been sent to the
Irrawaddy delta region which was obliterated in the May 2 catastrophe.
The UN has said it believes about 100,000 people were killed and
reports from the disaster zone say most victims remain where they fell.
"Diarrhoea and dysentery cases have been reported, but no cholera cases
were confirmed," the WHO said in a statement, amid fears that the
decomposing bodies are contaminating rivers and canals where drinking
water is being drawn.
"Immediate efforts are focused on ensuring care and treatment to the
injured population and preventing communicable diseases such as
diarrhoea, other waterborne diseases, acute respiratory infections,
measles and dengue."
The sheer scale of the disaster, and the junta's floundering response,
has meant there are simply no resources to bury or cremate the bodies of
the victims, let alone the corpses of livestock that also foul waterways.
That has created heartbreaking scenes including the bodies of whole
families floating in canals, their hands tied together with rope in a
vain bid to save them from the onslaught of wind and rain.
In one tragic case, the limp bodies of a group of children were caught
in branches by the riverbank, their small arms bound with rope,
presumably by parents who believed they would be safer secured together.
After 11 days in the intense tropical heat, reports from the delta say
the stench of death and decay from decomposing corpses is now overpowering.
The WHO said that as well as the body bags and other medical supplies
that have been dispatched to the delta region, it has also sent eight
emergency health kits, each of which can treat 10,000 people for three
months.
It has also sent water treatment equipment, antibiotics and
insecticide-treated bed nets to ward off malaria.