One thousand hospitals in Pakistan destroyed in quake: UN
About one thousand hospitals were “completely destroyed” in the earthquake in Pakistan, severely hampering urgent medical treatment for thousands of injured people, the United Nations said Tuesday.
The estimate was contained in a UN situation report on the international aid operation following the quake that devastated areas north of the capital Islamabad on Saturday, as well as parts
of northern India and Afghanistan.
“That’s just Pakistan. It’s an estimate made by our coordination office from information collected on the ground,” Elisabeth Byrs, a spokeswoman for the UN’s humanitarian coordination office (OCHA), told.
Pakistan has made an urgent appeal to the international community for field hospitals, as well as antibiotics, anti-typhoid medicines, fracture treatment kits, and surgical equipment, among
other supplies, according to OCHA.
Islamabad has also called for shelter equipment including tents, plastic sheeting and blankets “for an estimated four million people who are in need of shelter”, OCHA’s situation report said.
Other priority needs include cargo helicopters and food. “The devastation has created major obstacles in urgently helping the thousands of injured people to get the medical care they need,”
the World Health Organisation said in a statement.
“Many health workers - including doctors and nurses - have died or been seriously injured,” the UN’s health agency added.
Authorities say Saturday’s 7.6-magnitude quake, may have killed up to 40,000 people when it brought buildings and houses crashing down, mainly in mountainous areas of Pakistani Kashmir.
The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) warned Tuesday there was a risk of an epidemic of water-borne disease in Muzaffarabad, the quake-devastated capital of Pakistani Kashmir.
The group was setting up emergency clinics. The WHO also warned that there was an urgent need for clean water and sanitation, as well as measles vaccines for children, “We need to coordinate a massive health relief effort to ensure people get urgent care, and to prevent a bad situation from getting even worse,” said Ala Alwan, a senior WHO official dealing with
crisis action.
“Medical supplies, water and sanitation supplies and cash donations will help the most,” he added.
The WHO was sending medicines and surgical equipment for 1,000 operations to the region, as well as essential medicines and supplies to help 210,000 people for one month. UN disaster prevention experts said Tuesday that the Himalayas were a high risk earthquake zone and the “exceptional” quake in South Asia demonstrated the need to build toughened hospitals and
schools in the area.
“Losing hospitals becomes a double disaster if they are not built to to withstand earthquakes,” said Salvano Briceno, director of the UN’s International Strategy for Disaster Reduction.
“A disaster in that they are destroyed, but also that their equipment and their staff are no longer available to rescue other victims,” he added.
Source: The News
October 15th, 2005 at 2:41 am
I think that those ‘earth quake affected areas’,which are not accessible through common vehicles, mules may be used for transportation and Pakistan Army can manage it very well.
March 7th, 2006 at 9:54 pm
I agree-thus i am saying that eathquakes are bad because they make people dies sometimes.