WHO Sends Body Bags To Myanmar As Corpses Rot - AFP

[hatrack]

The World Health Organisation said Tuesday it had sent 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.

A spokeswoman was not able to say immediately how many body bags have been sent. 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.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/WHO_sends_body_bags_to_Myanmar_as_corpses_rot_999.html

[phantom power]

1. Last night, my daughter was sitting on my lap, watching the news.

First it was the aftermath of Nargis. And she asks me "why is that lady crying?" And what do you tell a four-year-old? "She lost her child."

Then it was the China. "Is that the same lady crying?" "No, that's a different lady, in a different country."

Then it was the Picher tornadoes. "Why is that lady crying?"

Fucking hell.

[Nihil]

2. It's not fun is it?

Having to explain the cruelties of life to an innocent child is not
one of the more pleasant parts of fatherhood. Wait until they start
putting the questions to you about human cruelty rather than the
misfortunes of capricious Nature ...

:hug:

[phantom power]

3. I dread the day she asks me about Guantanamo Bay.

I have no idea how to explain that. I've got nothing. Do I tell her about the Stanford Prison Experiment, and that we're all creatures of barely-contained evil?

:banghead:

[Nihil]

4. Hopefully it won't be too soon.

I found that once children have encountered more people "out there"
(especially kids their own age at school) then they are far quicker
to understand that not only may "bad" people exist but sometimes "good"
people will do some horrible things (i.e., that there is no black or
white, just shades of grey and relativity).

The classic case is when they encounter a boy or girl who is a friend
to them some of the time and a bully at other times, depending on who
is around. That hard lesson is basically a personalised introduction
to the Stanford Experiment and a cruel awakening from the "everyone is
a fluffy bunny really" perspective of innocence.

That's a time when you really feel grateful for the fact that they
were privileged to *start* life in a state of innocence and that their
introduction to reality has been incredibly more gentle than that of
so many of their age-group around the world ...

:-(

[Dead_Parrot]

5. Oh, thanks

That's brightened up my whole day.

:(