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New Delhi/Jakarta/Geneva, 4 Jan 2005: The Director-General of the World Health
Organization (WHO), Dr LEE Jong-wook, has arrived
in Jakarta at the start of a five-day visit to
Indonesia and Sri Lanka.
During the visit, Dr Lee will take part in the Special ASEAN Leaders' meeting
on the Aftermath of the Tsunami, to be held in Jakarta on Thursday.
Dr Lee, together with
the Executive Director of UNICEF, Carol Bellamy, will travel on Wednesday to
some of the worst hit areas around Banda Aceh in
northern Sumatra to meet some of the victims
of the tsunami and to assess the most urgent health needs. He will also be meeting
with and travelling with the European Commissioner
for Development and Humanitarian Aid, Louis Michel.
After leaving Indonesia
late on Thursday, Dr Lee will travel to Sri Lanka to review progress in the
relief effort and to offer further support to the country and to the
communities which have been most seriously affected by the tsunami.
Since the tsunami
struck, WHO has been working together with the core group of countries
helping to provide humanitarian support. WHO has mobilised teams of experts to work with countries to
assess the most urgent health needs and to ensure that they are met as
rapidly as possible.
The most urgent health
need now is to prevent outbreaks of infectious disease, and particularly of
water-borne diseases such as diarrhoeal diseases, dysentery and typhoid. It
is clear that providing clean water to as many as possible of the affected
communities is now the most pressing health priority.WHO's
assistance is focused in five key areas:
 Disease surveillance and response: tracking
patterns of life-threatening diseases and establishing an early warning
system;
Coordinated action with the health system and
other health actors locally, nationally and internationally;
Providing public health guidance on responding
to disease outbreaks, water quality, sanitation, chronic disease management
and mental health;
Ensuring access to essential health care
together with all partners and the local health system;
Helping to coordinate medical supplies to
ensure that supply chains work well and that people get the medicines they
need when and where they need them
Contacts: For more information,
contact (in Jakarta)
Harsaran Pandey 0062-21- 5204349 ext 37, mobile: +91-9811021001, pandeyh@whosea.org; Iain Simpson,
Communications Officer, Tel: +41 22 791 3215, mobile: +41 79 475 5534, email: simpsoni@who.int or Fadéla
Chaib, Communications Officer, Tel: +41 22 791 3228, mobile: +41 475 5556, email chaibf@who.int
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