Cyclone Survivors Now Racked by Disease

One in five children who survived in the areas hit by Cyclone Nargis is suffering from diarrhea, according to a UNICEF official in Rangoon.

Osamu Kunii, UNICEF’s chief of health and nutrition, told the Associated Press that the number could still rise.

Veronique Terrasse, a communications officer for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Bangkok, told The Irrawaddy that her organization was treating “many” diarrhea sufferers.

Bodies lie next to a river at the village town of Laputta which was hit by Cyclone Nargis in Irrawaddy Division May 9. Burma will accept foreign aid but not foreign aid workers, the foreign ministry said on Friday, after a disaster rescue team from Qatar that arrived in Rangoon on an aid flight was turned back. (Photo: Reuters)

She said MSF had set up several mobile clinics, staffed by 35 helpers. Two trucks with food, fresh water and medical supplies had arrived in the worst affected region, the Irrawaddy Delta.

Outbreaks of cholera and malaria are also being reported in the delta region, where the cyclone created all the conditions for epidemics.

"Most of the area is covered by dirty water,” said Osamu Kunii. “There are a lot of dead bodies and the people there have very poor access—sometimes no access—to clean drinking water or food."

One Rangoon source said: “It is very difficult to bury the dead because everywhere is flooded. We needed expert relief workers.”

The World Food Program (WFP) announced that two trucks with 20 tonnes of rice and four tones of high-energy biscuit, left Rangoon for the Irrawaddy Delta on Thursday.

A total of 156 tonnes of emergency supplies had so far been dispatched to the Delta and other devastated areas, the WFP reported.

Meanwhile, senior officials of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations pledged at a meeting in Singapore the organization’s readiness to help with aid and reconstruction.

The group suggested that Burmese authorities could establish a coordinating mechanism that could work with the international community and aid agencies, to assess the damage and needs in the affected areas as well as facilitate in-country distribution of humanitarian aid, and entry and deployment of rescue and medical personnel and equipment.

The Burmese government announced on Friday that only foreign cash and supplies are welcome, not international relief workers.

IRRAWADDY NEWS