Word: tsunamis
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...mudslides and floods in the U.S. last week or even the Iranian earthquake of 2003, are usually too parochial in their victimization to catch the attention of all humanity. It takes a multicontinental cataclysm--instantaneous, catastrophic, widely spread--to shake the world from its self-absorption. The tsunami that destroyed thousands of lives from Sumatra to Somalia engendered an instant, near-universal outpouring of concern, shared grief and charitable giving. Ronald Reagan once startled the U.N. by suggesting in a speech that humanity would unite and forget its petty divisions if we were attacked from outer space. This elicited widespread...
...years we have chosen to put our resources into military spending and most recently into a war that has become an enormous money pit. Perhaps if we had used our resources more wisely over the years, we could have helped reduce the death and destruction caused by the tsunami...
...death toll from the Asian tsunami rose sharply last week when Indonesia's Health Ministry moved 50,000 of the people on its missing list to the fatalities column, bringing the total there to 166,320. Although the waves have long receded, the tsunami still threatens. For survivors in crowded, unsanitary refugee camps, normally treatable illnesses such as cholera, dysentery, malaria and measles can quickly become mass murderers. So great is the danger that Dr. David Nabarro, the World Health Organization's (WHO) head of crisis operations, initially warned that the death toll from disease could rival that...
...almost a month after the tsunami hit, those feared epidemics have yet to strike. Waterborne diarrheal diseases have been staved off through good sanitation and hygiene, aggressive insecticide use has kept malaria and dengue fever to a minimum, and meticulous surveillance has contained contagious illnesses. The battle against disease isn't over, but the medical response to the tsunami is shaping up to be a surprising success story for the field of emergency public health. "The situation is still evolving, still dynamic, but I think we are well prepared," says Dr. Jai Narain, the WHO's Southeast Asia regional adviser...
...heroic world of disaster relief, public-health workers are the plumbers. But their line of unglamorous pipe work has saved an untold number of lives. The waves that destroyed entire towns also fractured sewage pipes and fouled drinking water wells, leaving the water supply of tsunami-affected areas contaminated with seawater, garbage and human waste. The first order of business was to ensure a steady supply of clean drinking water, at least 18 liters a day per person, and to create a passable sanitation system?building latrines away from refugee camps, and promoting proper hygiene among survivors?to prevent illnesses...