Excerpts presser by World Health Organisation
(24 Jan 2005)
1. Various of Eigil Sorensen, World Health Organisation (WHO) Special Envoy and Georg Pettersen, WHO Representative for Indonesia sitting for news conference
2. Cameraman
3. SOUNDBITE: (English) Eigil Sorensen, WHO Special Envoy:
"I think that my experience, being for a time in Banda Aceh, I'm very impressed by the efforts done from the government side, from the armed forces, from the health workers and from international agencies, from the UN side and from NGOs. I think there are really tremendous efforts which have been done and I think that a lot of achievements in a very difficult situation have been made."
5. Journalists
6. Sorensen and Pettersen
7. SOUNDBITE: (English) Eigil Sorensen, WHO Special Envoy:
"I think that, first of all, there has been good courage of health care support to tackle any individual cases. For instance we (had) 30 plus (cases) of measles and quite rapidly we have been able to start immunisations of children between six months and 15 years, living around these detected cases and in similar ways as it has been mentioned before, there are on a daily basis reports of small number of diseases which are being investigated. The presence of many organisations, NGOs, UN agencies and with the government help, we have been able to treat the cases as well as preventive measures have been taken when there have been disease outbreaks."
8. Wide shot of news conference
9. Journalist
10.SOUNDBITE: (English) Eigil Sorensen, WHO Special Envoy:
"We have depended on agencies, that be NGOs, Red Cross, anybody who has been delivering health care to report back on suspected cases and this has been functioning quite well because the agencies have been able to communicate this either by telephone or by email or by written messages and we set up both a 24-hour hotline for reporting of possible outbreaks, and also a system for reporting normal diseases."
11. Sorensen and Pettersen leaving the press room
STORYLINE:
World Health Organisation (WHO) Special Envoy Eigil Sorensen on Monday said that so far UN agencies and NGOs have been able to tackle outbreaks of disease in areas affected by the tsunami of December 26th.
Sorensen said that the efforts made by the Indonesian government and army as well as by the UN agencies and NGOs have been "tremendous" and achievements have been made "in a very difficult situation".
He said that WHO managed to set up a network between all aid agencies operating on the field to report back any disease outbreaks. A 24 hour hotline also helped to respond quickly to any reports of disease.
The assessment in the region came as the WHO announced in Geneva that the danger that disease and injuries could double the death toll from Asia's tsunami catastrophe has now passed, thanks to the world's rapid response - and to a measure of luck.
There have been small outbreaks of measles and diarrhoea, but rapid intervention has prevented these from turning into full-scale epidemics.
Reports of disease have been swiftly investigated and dealt with, minimising the chance of illnesses spreading. Money has been poured into rushing chlorine tablets and bottled water to survivors.
But despite the improving of regular distribution of relief, a particularly heavy rainy season is worsening conditions in settlements of the displaced and hampering delivery of relief, especially by road.
In an effort to get regular supplies to communities on the West Coast, Meulaboh is becoming a UN coordination hub from which sub-offices are being established, starting with Calang, where the impact of the disaster was particularly devastating.
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