Response from the WHO Country Office for India

1. What are the main health risks during floods?

2. In the WHO's view, what are the main risks in Kashmir?

Please refer to http://www.who.int/hac/techguidance/ems/floods/en/

3. There is only one hospital serving 70 lakh people. What is the WHO's view on this in terms of patient
safety?

According to the information we have collected from various sources, in order to mitigate the impact on
the functionality of certain major government hospitals due to the floods, 58 mobile health clinics have
been set up in Srinagar and 4 mobile hospitals have been pressed into service. The maternity hospital in
Srinagar has been functional and the bone and joint hospital has re-opened a week ago. Many district
hospitals have been functioning. 106 medical teams of the army have been deployed in addition to 1
Base hospital and 4 Field hospitals. If the standard precautions are followed in all these facilities, patient
safety may not be unduly compromised. To prevent /control public health exigencies 2 Central Public
Health Teams have been posted - 1 each in Jammu and Srinagar for rapid health assessment and
response by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. A 29-member clinical team comprising of
physicians, pediatricians and gynecologists has also been positioned in Srinagar and all medicines and
medical supplies that have been requested by the state government have been provided. Clean-up
operations at hospitals in Srinagar have apparently started and once electricity and water supply is
restored, these hospitals will also start taking on the patient load in an incremental manner.


4. Does the WHO believe that UN aid/assistance should be given to Kashmir?
5. What is the WHO's view on India's refusal to accept UN aid.

As United Nations specialized technical agency for health WHO is mandated to assists the national
government in the response starting from the early recovery phase to tackle the public health
consequences of a disaster and not at the search and rescue / relief phase. When the country has
sufficient resources and capacity to mount an effective response in a timely manner in accordance to
the scale of the disaster, WHO assistance may be limited to normative guidance on technical issues
related to the public health response. WHO has been in constant communication with the Ministry of
Health and Family Welfare, Government of India and is cognizant of the response efforts. The
government has been intervening to tackle the potential adverse public health consequence of this
disaster especially as related to water and sanitation and control of communicable diseases.


6. Any other information in relation to this disaster would be useful.

Please refer to:
http://www.searo.who.int/india/areas/health_systems/JandK_floods/en/
http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/252601/Floods-and-health-Fact-sheets-for-
health-professionals.pdf