Dead Bodies everywhere after Super Typhoon Yolanda in Philippines

Photo By Noel Celis

It's been almost a week after the super-typhoon Yalanda (with international name Haiyan) hits the central Philippines, medical experts said that Health risks from dead bodies are negligible. According to World Health Organization (WHO) 

 "The widespread belief that corpses pose a major health risk is inaccurate. Especially if death resulted from trauma, bodies are very unlikely to cause outbreaks of diseases such as typhoid fever, cholera or plague though they may transmit gastroenteritis or food poisoning syndrome for survivors if they contaminate streams, wells or other water sources." 

But the rotten smell could be unbearable for some survivors who are starving for foods for almost a week, still others complain and asking the government for a slow response of help and of the proper burial. 

Dr. Emmanuel M. Bueno, a surgeon who is a medical center director in Manila for the Philippines Department of Health and is helping to oversee medical care in Tacloban City, Philippines, said in an interview that the authorities there planned to dig three mass graves on Wednesday(November 13, 2013), putting layers of bodies side by side with a plastic tarpaulin sprinkled with lime on top of each layer. “We will give them at least a decent burial, with a blessing by a priest,” [1]

[1] The New York Times