Burma cyclone prompts disease crisis fears

Health officials fear Burma could be devastated by outbreaks of diseases fuelled by mosquitoes, dirty water and poor sanitation following the devastating cyclone.

Officials said the death toll from the weekend storm could climb higher than the 14,000 already feared dead. Up to one million people were left homeless.

The World Health Organisation was today waiting for permission from the country's ruling junta to send in medical teams but the wrecked infrastructure would probably hamper early efforts, said a spokeswoman.

"The communications are broken down and the roads are not operational," she said. "But the officers are on the ground and are ready for rapid assessment, surveillance and mobilisation."

Teams will work to prevent mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria, as well as diarrhoea and other outbreaks that can spread quickly amid a lack of clean water and sanitation. Major concerns also include respiratory illnesses among children forced to sleep outside and injuries suffered during the storm.

WHO was waiting for Burma's military leaders to request aid from a regional emergency fund the UN agency set up last year to fill the time gap between international donors' pledges and the actual arrival of aid.

The cyclone ripped down power lines and destroyed roads and homes. Fuel shortages and a lack of food and clean water have worsened the situation in some areas, said a Unicef spokeswoman Shantha Bloemen in Bangkok.

She said it would likely take two or three days to assess the damage.

Unicef plans to distribute water purification tablets, mosquito nets and health kits, while also responding to food shortages in a country where millions go hungry during the best of times and about one in three children is malnourished.

An estimated 90% of people in Burma live on just 50p a day. In 2000, WHO ranked its overall health care system as the world's second-worst, after war-ravaged Sierra Leone.

Hospitals are available but most people cannot afford them. Thousands instead risk their lives each year to travel to a clinic at a border town in Thailand where free treatment is offered.

Several humanitarian agencies, including the French arm of Doctors Without Borders, have pulled out of the country in recent years due to travel restrictions and tight government control.