WHO readying medical supplies after 'huge' quake

Myanmar opens routes for international assistance; MSF calls for rapid access to affected areas and the timely approval of supplies and personnel

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The World Health Organization (WHO) said it was mobilising its logistics hub to prepare trauma injury supplies following Friday’s “huge” earthquake in Myanmar and had triggered its emergency management response.

The WHO is coordinating its earthquake response from its Geneva headquarters. “Because we see this as a huge event” with “clearly a very, very big threat to life and health,” spokeswoman Margaret Harris told a media briefing.

“We’ve activated our logistics hub to look particularly for trauma supplies and things like external fixators because we expect that there will be many, many injuries that need to be dealt with,” Harris said.

She said the WHO would also be concentrating on getting in essential medicines, while the health infrastructure in Myanmar itself might be damaged.

Harris said that due to recent experience with the 2023 Turkey-Syria earthquakes “we know very well what you need to send in first”.

The UN health agency already has a special cell to deal with Myanmar, which has been rocked by fighting between numerous ethnic rebel groups and the army.

And by chance, the WHO had had an assessment in recent weeks of the best ways to get supplies into Myanmar.