Many More Doctors Needed To Help SAsia Quake Victims: UN

DISASTER MANAGEMENT

A Pakistani Army doctor treats an injured Kashmiri boy at a military hospital in Lahore, 13 October 2005. Pakistan Army have evacuated some 40 Kashmiri injured people to Lahore for medical treatment from Muzaffarabad 12 October. Chief military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan told AFP that confirmed quake toll in Pakistan has risen to 25,000 with some 63,000 injured. AFP photo by Arif Ali.

Geneva (AFP) Oct 13, 2005
The number of health workers helping victims of South Asia's quake needs to be doubled or even tripled in some locations to help the estimated 50,000 injured people there, the World Health Organisation said Wednesday.

"There is a particularly urgent need for general practitioners with experience in emergencies and basic surgical skills," it said, adding that many of the injured have broken or crushed limbs, head, spinal and chest trauma.

Twenty-six hospitals and most of 600 health clinics in affected areas were thought to have been destroyed or severely damaged, the UN body said in a statement.

UN agencies fear the onset of winter in the mountains of Pakistani Kashmir, and warn of the plight of injured people in remote villages who need urgent medical evacuation while field hospitals are set up.

"It is estimated we need three times the number of helicopters available,"

said UN Assistant Emergency Relief Coordinator Yvette Stevens.

"We should all be in a hurry to rush assistance to victims. They should not be allowed to go through another traumatic experience", she told reporters here.

Stevens added that donor countries have so far made peldges to the UN of 165 million dollars to help victims of the weekend quake that killed 25,000 people in Pakistan and another 1,300 in Indian Kashmir.

The UN launched an emergency appeal for 272 million dollars in aid over six months for earthquake victims earlier this week.

Several countries made separate public announcements about aid for Pakistan earlier this week, including 200 million dollars from Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, up to 50 million dollars from the United States and 20 million dollars from Japan.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said Wednesday that his country had received 350 million dollars of aid pledges.

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UAV NEWS

US Providing Aerial Reconnaissance To View Pakistan Quake Disaster

Washington (AFP) Oct 11, 2005
The US military is providing manned and unmanned reconnaissance aircraft as well as satellite imagery to help Pakistan get a fix on conditions in mountainous quake-stricken areas, a Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday.