Inter Press Service - December 31, 2004
Fabio Scarpello

More bodies are still being recovered from the debris or fished out of the sea in Thailand as the death toll from last weekend's earthquake-tsunami catastrophe, which devastated 10 countries along the Indian Ocean, crossed the 120,000 mark as of early Friday.

On Thursday, in a matter of hours, IPS witnessed over 30 bodies fished out around Khoa Lak, the once luxurious resort favoured by Scandinavian tourists escaping the European winter.

The official national toll issued by the Thai government was 1,657 dead and 8,954 injured, with 4,086, mostly tourists, still missing.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, on a helicopter tour of the stricken areas, said the toll could reach 3,000.

There is pressure to bury the bodies as soon as possible and medical doctors together with forensic teams are working around the clock to identify the corpses so that the next-of-kin will be able to give them decent funerals.

The few forensic specialists at hand have the hard task of scooping skin samples, from the corpses, for possible DNA identification. Those searching for friends or family members, who insist on inspecting each body, often interrupt their jobs.

But most of the corpses are by now hardly recognizable. It is a gruesome sight with the bodies blackened, swollen and with popped out tongues.

Many of the corpses are also in the advanced stage of decomposition with worms already eating into the flesh.

Hospitals are over-spilling with bodies, as a result of which schools and temples are doubling up as mortuaries. But the shortage of formalin, compounded with the high temperature and the lack of refrigerated areas are only making the bodies decompose fast.

However, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other leading public health authorities say corpses are not the serious health hazard, that most people believe them to be, and mass burials and cremations are unjustified.

"Identification of the dead and time to carry out burials is important since infections do not survive in corpses with the exception of HIV, which lingers for six days," said the WHO in a statement.

Nonetheless, the risk of disease is certainly there.

"The diseases that will cause a threat to large number of people are diseases that are going to be carried by a lack of clean water - water contaminated by either the sewage or actually from corpses," a volunteer foreign doctor told IPS.

"The major diseases are basically typhoid and cholera - those are the two major life-threatening ones," he said.

Yet, the Thai authorities are denying fears of epidemics and claim that the situation is fully under control.

"We have mobilized doctors to supervise the various hotspots and there is no danger of epidemics," said Thai Interior Minister Bhokin Bhalakul, who also praised the national health system.

"We are fine but I am sorry for our neighboring countries that do not have a health system as efficient as ours," he said referring to hard hit Sri Lanka and Indonesia, during a meeting, in Phuket, attended by foreign diplomats.

Meanwhile, the Thai government announced that it as setting up three new camps on the mainland where some of the corpses from the island will gradually be moved.

"The camps will facilitate the doctors' job to take DNA samples from every deceased and possibly match it," Phuket Police Deputy Commander Col. Kokiai Wongvorachart told IPS.

While Thailand's 60 forensic experts are struggling to cope with the magnitude of the disaster, the government has yet to ask formally for international help.

"Yes, we have not officially requested assistance but we welcome volunteers," said Wongvorachart.

Among the countries that have sent forensic teams are Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia and the European Union.

"Nearly hundred forensic doctors are now operative in the country," Marialuisa Silvestrini, head of the EU delegation, told IPS.

As it is, rescue teams are ill equipped to carry out their work, with some lacking even basic surgical masks and gloves.

The body fluids from the corpses are left to drain out on the pavement. And it is a common sight to see stray dogs licking the foul discharges.

Young Thai men, helping in the grim task of recovering bodies, have become accustomed to corpses and seem to have done away with even the most basic health precautions. Most were seen posing for pictures next to putrefying bodies.

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