Quake victims need NATO for a “ Berlin airlift” says UN

Without more aid and helicopters, half-a-million could die from disease and exposure in snows due soon.

Enormous airlifts of supplies in, and wounded and sick out, plus tetanus toxoid, disinfectants, basic hospital equipment and data registries are essential immediately or donors will have to “look in the mirror and ask why” .

(20 Oct 05)

"The Kashmir earthquake is a far worse disaster than the December tsunami off Indonesia, because access to the disaster zone is appalling amidst mountains and landslides. The army is resorting to mules and donkeys, and people are dying of gangrene, tetanus, and sawing off limbs with kitchen knives", Jan Egeland, UN emergency relief coordinator, told the BBC national radio news at 1300 hrs GMT today.

WHO and Pakistan’s Ministry of Health, in today’s Earthquake Health Situation Report, say that a Disease Early Warning System in Mansehra, with mobile units and camps in Garhi Habibullah and Balakot, has already seen 900 cases of acute respiratory infection, 200 cases of diarrhoea, 13 tetanus cases and one case of measles. Most tetanus cases came from Balakot, says the report, and about half are under twelve years of age.

More than 25 teams are undertaking vaccination for measles for children under 15 and tetanus for pregnant women and children with injuries in Muzaffarabad, Bagh, Rawalakot and Mansehra, says the report. However anti tetanus globulin is in short supply “and needs to be replenished immediately”.

But the interventions are racing against the oncoming winter. Egeland told the BBC that winter snows are due in 5-6 weeks, and he called for a massive airlift by NATO, equivalent in scale to the historic lift of supplies to Berlin during the Soviet blockade in 1948, when at its peak planes were landing near Berlin at one every minute to care for the population.

But even planes are little use in Kashmir, on the edge of the Himalayas, and NATO should bring in many, many more helicopters, said Egeland, to lift out refugees, or there will be a second wave of dying – from disease and from exposure in the snows.

Some 400 000 to 500 000 people still haven’t been reached in mountain villages, Egeland estimated.

According the Reuters news agency, Egeland said this morning that while 92 countries had helped nations hit by last year's tsunami, only some 15 to 20 countries had responded to the quake. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's chief aid co-ordinator in Islamabad, Andrew McLeod, told the BBC: "If the second wave of deaths hits, it's the major donors that are going to have to look at themselves in the mirror and ask why."

Apart from anti-tetanus globulin, other urgent health needs, according to the Ministry of Health in Pakistan and WHO today, are:

For hospitals still functioning after the earthquake, improvements in the registry system to enable the collection and analysis of accurate surveillance data.

Solid waste segregation boxes for sharps and other solid waste supplies for these hospitals.

Mobile blood banks to ensure sufficient quantities of safe blood.

Supplies of chlorine in any available form, as chlorination for the disinfection of water is a priority, and bladders for water storage (20 cubic metres).

Detergents, disinfectants and cleaning materials as hygiene promotion materials.

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