Kathmandu : International bodies, including the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the International Committee of the Red Cross, have intensified their work in the Himalayan nation that was convulsed by a 7.9-magnitude earthquake which killed more than 5,000 people.
The WHO has deployed a special foreign medical team with several health kits containing essential medicines, disposables and instruments to cover the health needs of around 80,000 people for the next three months.
“We have already dispatched a special foreign medical team with a capability of top level treatment for the quake victims. An additional five emergency health kits are being flown in along with surgical kits and trauma bags to meet the immediate health needs. There is an urgent need to replenish medical stocks to support the emergency response efforts,” Poonam Khetrapal, regional director, for WHO’s South-East Asia Region told IANS in a statement.
“The team will deliver inpatient acute care, general and obstetric surgery for trauma and other major condition and ensure complex inpatient referral surgical care including intensive care capacity,” said Poonam explaining the specialities to be provided by the foreign medical team.
She said that currently, at least 20 more foreign medical teams have offered support to the country and have registered with WHO. The first teams are expected to arrive in Kathmandu tonight.
WHO stated that 30 of Nepal’s 75 districts have been impacted, with 11 priority districts identified as in greatest need of humanitarian relief.
International NGO Oxfam has mobilised more teams to reach out to the far flung and worst-hit areas outside the Kathmandu Valley to assess the damage following the devastating Nepal earthquake.
“The work to build proper toilets and clean water has been started in 16 open air sites set up by the Nepal government and to provide food and shelter, while also expanding operations outside Kathmandu,” Nisha Agrawal, CEO of Oxfam in India said in a statement.
She also said that a team of Oxfam is trying to reach the Gorkha district, the worst-affected by the earthquake, taking a road route from India, as all routes from Kathmandu valley are broken off.
The international NGO has also so far raised over $1.5 m globally to assist the affected in Nepal. More than five tonnes of water and sanitation materials have been dispatched from Oxfam’s warehouse in Barcelona to help those hit by the crisis.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has activated its tracing mechanism to enable it find those separated from their loved ones by the disaster.
“The web service dedicated to this activity is http://familylinks.icrc.org/nepal-earthquake/. It is both in English and Nepali languages.”
As per the new initiative, the website makes it possible to search through the list of missing persons and of those people, who have responded that they are alive.
A statement from the organisation said that if anyone wanted to search anyone with whom they have lost their contact can,”Register names of persons who wish to inform others that they are alive and register names of persons with whom they have lost contact.”
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is mounting an emergency operation to help survivors of the Nepal earthquake, with food trucks rolling into the district of Gorkha.
Several prominent firms such as Koenig Solutions and Lybrate have deployed CSR teams to participate in the rescue operations in the Himalayan nation.
A statement from the Lybrate said that they have created an exclusive page — https://www.lybrate.com/india-for-nepal — where people can ask queries from a group of trusted doctors from varied specialties to know what they need to do to improve their health condition.