Java quake: call for orthopedic supplies as death toll exceeds 5,800
Apart from food and medicine, WHO and Jakarta are also asking donors for orthopedic materials. Foreign aid is pouring in. The Indonesian authorities are grappling with treated patients who do not want to leave overcrowded hospitals.
Yogyakarta (AsiaNews/Agencies) The death toll of a quake that shook Java on 27 May continues to rise. Today, the Social Affairs Minister in Jakarta spoke of 5,846 deaths. Meanwhile, health and food emergencies are being aggravated by a lack of orthopedic material to treat the injured.
Indonesia and the World Health Organization asked international donors to send orthopedic equipment to treat as many as 5,000 patients. A WHO official in Yogyakarta said the government was trying to mobilize nurses trained to handle emergencies and that hospitals in worst hit districts urgently needed orthopedic supplies.
"There might not be sufficient' supplies so health authorities want international help," said the official.
Jakarta has sent 30 mobile clinics to reach injured people in more remote areas. Vice-President Jusuf Kalla, also head of the National Disaster Agency, said he expected half the budget for aid operations to be forked out by foreign donors. Right now, the total figure forecast for a year of aid amounts to around 107.5 million dollars.
UN sources said 22 countries had already responded to Indonesia's aid with aid and rescue teams. And even more countries have started to send money.
Yesterday, several aircraft arrived, with health personnel on board, including Japanese paramedics and a team of American marines. The International Organisation for Migration said it had sent 35 tons of aid to four zones, including Bantul, the hardest-hit area south of Yogyakarta. Malaysia will set up a field hospital and send another mobile clinic with 78 medics. India, meanwhile, will dispatch two Navy ships with medical personnel and health materials on board. The World Food Programme needs food for another two months to feed 130,000 people.
Meanwhile, Indonesian authorities are struggling to manage the crisis presented by overcrowded hospitals, where patients who have been treated do not want to leave. A spokesperson for Oxfam said: "People are getting food and shelter in the hospitals so they don't want to leave." WHO said so far 3,000 out of 5,000 people in urgent need of treatment have received it.
According to the latest official death toll of last Saturday's earthquake, there were at least 3,580 in Bantul, 1,668 in Klaten, 326 in Sleman, 165 in Yogyakarta, 69 in Gunung Kidul, 26 in Kulonprogo, five in Purworejo, three in Boyolali, three in Magelang, one in Sukoharjo. Around 9,720 people have been injured.
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