MSF (Medecins Sans Frontieres / Doctors Without Borders) has relayed its assessment of the current and potential problems for those people who have been relocated to tent villages following the Yushu earthquake of 14 April 2010.
Although food and shelter for the survivors are not currently problems, health needs are significant. General surgeon Daiki Murakami was the medical coordinator of the assessment team. Hygiene problems should be considered. In these large camps for displaced people there is little waste management and they definitely need more latrines. At the moment there are not many severe infections or diarrhea, but in the following weeks such kind of disease could happen so this should be addressed urgently, said Daiki.
In addition, children could benefit from post trauma counselling, Daiki said. According to a teacher I met in a school, some children are behaving strangely, completely differently than normal. Some children start laughing suddenly, other start suddenly crying. Some seem depressed and many of them cannot sleep well. This is all likely linked to the earthquake, said Daiki.
