More than 1 million victims of deadly storms in the Philippines may be suffering from mental stress and need psychological help, the WHO said yesterday.
Shin Young-soo, WHO regional director for Western Pacific, said that while it was normal for flood and landslide victims to experience anguish, those feelings needed to be addressed.
“Many of these people will be anxious and distressed after the experience they have gone through,” he said.
PHOTO: EPA
“That is a perfectly normal reaction, but the danger is they might become frustrated and angry if their physical and mental needs are not taken care of as the days go by,” he said.
Shin said among the signs of deteriorating mental state include sleeplessness, antisocial behavior and suicidal tendencies.
“This is about the time when we might be seeing worrying reactions such as these,” he said. “Government officials and relief workers should be on the lookout for signs.”
Nearly 1,000 people were killed by back-to-back storms Ketsana and Parma that triggered massive flooding and landslides in the Philippines in late September and early last month.
More than 8 million people have been affected by the storms.
The WHO said more than 1 million people were still living in floodwaters, with little prospect of the flood receding before the end of the year.
“Tens of thousands of people are at risk from leptospirosis, a bacterial disease caused by contact with water contaminated with urine from rats and other mammals,” a WHO statement said.
“Other health threats include cholera, dengue fever, malaria, diarrhoea, skin rashes and respiratory illnesses,” it said.
The organization also warned of psychological stress on relief workers, many of whom have been working seven days a week since the storms struck.
“Confronting danger and human misery for days on end, often without proper rest, exacts a heavy emotional toll on these people,” Shin said.
Shin said emergency workers can sometimes be so overwhelmed by the scale of disaster and by the suffering they witness their performance becomes significantly impaired.
He said if relief workers showed signs of burnout, they should be allowed to withdraw.
“A dysfunctional helper is no help to anyone,” Shin said.
FOREST SITE: A rescue helicopter spotted the burning fuselage of the plane in a forested area, with rescue personnel saying they saw no evidence of survivors A passenger plane carrying nearly 50 people crashed yesterday in a remote spot in Russia’s far eastern region of Amur, with no immediate signs of survivors, authorities said. The aircraft, a twin-propeller Antonov-24 operated by Angara Airlines, was headed to the town of Tynda from the city of Blagoveshchensk when it disappeared from radar at about 1pm. A rescue helicopter later spotted the burning fuselage of the plane on a forested mountain slope about 16km from Tynda. Videos published by Russian investigators showed what appeared to be columns of smoke billowing from the wreckage of the plane in a dense, forested area. Rescuers in
‘ARBITRARY’ CASE: Former DR Congo president Joseph Kabila has maintained his innocence and called the country’s courts an instrument of oppression Former Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) president Joseph Kabila went on trial in absentia on Friday on charges including treason over alleged support for Rwanda-backed militants, an AFP reporter at the court said. Kabila, who has lived outside the DR Congo for two years, stands accused at a military court of plotting to overthrow the government of Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi — a charge that could yield a death sentence. He also faces charges including homicide, torture and rape linked to the anti-government force M23, the charge sheet said. Other charges include “taking part in an insurrection movement,” “crime against the
POLITICAL PATRIARCHS: Recent clashes between Thailand and Cambodia are driven by an escalating feud between rival political families, analysts say The dispute over Thailand and Cambodia’s contested border, which dates back more than a century to disagreements over colonial-era maps, has broken into conflict before. However, the most recent clashes, which erupted on Thursday, have been fueled by another factor: a bitter feud between two powerful political patriarchs. Cambodian Senate President and former prime minister Hun Sen, 72, and former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, 76, were once such close friends that they reportedly called one another brothers. Hun Sen has, over the years, supported Thaksin’s family during their long-running power struggle with Thailand’s military. Thaksin and his sister Yingluck stayed
POINTING FINGERS: The two countries have accused each other of firing first, with Bangkok accusing Phnom Penh of targeting civilian infrastructure, including a hospital Thai acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai yesterday warned that cross-border clashes with Cambodia that have uprooted more than 130,000 people “could develop into war,” as the countries traded deadly strikes for a second day. A long-running border dispute erupted into intense fighting with jets, artillery, tanks and ground troops on Thursday, and the UN Security Council was set to hold an emergency meeting on the crisis yesterday. A steady thump of artillery strikes could be heard from the Cambodian side of the border, where the province of Oddar Meanchey reported that one civilian — a 70-year-old man — had been killed and
RSS