Death toll hits 78,000 in Burma as pressure mounts for international intervention

Limited media reports from the stricken area continue to show scenes of devastation. Large numbers of survivors face a desperate situation without adequate food, drinking water, basic sanitary facilities and medicine. The UN estimates that between 1.6 million and 2.5 million survivors are in urgent need of relief supplies and only 500,000 people have some form of temporary shelter.

Aid agencies are reporting widespread cases of diarrhea, dysentery and skin infections among refugees crammed into monasteries, schools and other temporary shelter. However, World Health Organisation (WHO) official Maureen Birmingham told the media: We dont have an explosion of cholera. While the danger of an epidemic certainly remains, the number of reported cases of the potentially deadly disease is no higher than usual for this time of year.

Tropical downpours yesterday compounded the misery and further hampered relief efforts. Much of the infrastructure in the low-lying delta was badly damaged or swept away by storm surges whipped up by the cyclone. Aid organisations have warned of widespread deaths from disease and starvation if greater supplies of aid as well as medical teams do not reach the survivors.

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