Mass burial ‘not needed for tsunami victims’

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<h1>Mass burial ‘not needed for tsunami victims’</h1>
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<p><P>Public health officials in countries hit by last month’s tsunami are rapidly burying victims in mass graves to prevent disease outbreaks. But this is an unnecessary practice according to a report released last year.</P><br />
<P>The report, produced by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in September 2004, says mass burial following natural disasters should be avoided. It says it is a myth that human corpses pose a higher risk of diseases such as cholera, because most harmful bacteria and viruses die soon after human death as the body temperature falls.</P><br />
<P>According to PAHO, mass burials also reduce the likelihood of identifying victims — who should be buried instead in a way that allows later exhumation and a dignified funeral. It recommends that each body is carefully recorded, tagged and put into an individual body bag.</P><br />
<P><a  href="http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050103/full/050103-10.html" target="_blank" onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/tracking/external/'+this.href);" rel="noopener noreferrer">Link to full news@nature.com news story</A><BR><BR><a  href="/ms/tsunami" target=_self rel="noopener noreferrer">Link to SciDev.Net’s news focus ‘Tsunami update’</A> </P></p>

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<p>This article was originally published on <a href="https://www.scidev.net" target="_blank">SciDev.Net</a>. Read the <a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/news/mass-burial-not-needed-for-tsunami-victims/" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
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Public health officials in countries hit by last month’s tsunami are rapidly burying victims in mass graves to prevent disease outbreaks. But this is an unnecessary practice according to a report released last year.

The report, produced by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in September 2004, says mass burial following natural disasters should be avoided. It says it is a myth that human corpses pose a higher risk of diseases such as cholera, because most harmful bacteria and viruses die soon after human death as the body temperature falls.

According to PAHO, mass burials also reduce the likelihood of identifying victims — who should be buried instead in a way that allows later exhumation and a dignified funeral. It recommends that each body is carefully recorded, tagged and put into an individual body bag.

Link to full [email protected] news story

Link to SciDev.Net’s news focus ‘Tsunami update’