Tsunami fallout - UN capacity needed to curb disease

Normally, earthquakes affect a specific area, but the earthquake off Sumatra sent tsunami across five times zones, doing enormous damage to 12 different countries ranging from Thailand in southeast Asia to eastern Africa.

As the death toll mounts daily and looks likely to reach 100,000 lives, we should realise that the aftershock in the form of disease could reverberate around the globe.

People directly affected were not just the local inhabitants in the 12 countries, but people from all continents. There are as many as 24 Irish people still unaccounted for. Sweden has reported 1,500 citizens missing, the Czech Republic almost 400, Finland 200 and both Italy and Germany 100.

Just as the tsunami impacted directly on citizens from around the globe, the diseases that could be incubated in the midst of the horror, could pose a threat to the lives of an even great number of people.

The disaster has been unique in its scope and it therefore requires the greatest relief effort to be undertaken in all of history. This is well beyond the resources of the traditional aid agencies. It requires the kind of organisational capacity normally associated with the military.

The United Nations should call on the military expertise of its members to organise an international force to provide immediate relief on a global scale in order to prevent an even greater tragedy.