Hanoi (VNA) – The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on March 30 that the Myanmar earthquake was a top-level emergency, and it urgently sought 8 million USD to save lives and prevent disease outbreaks in the Southeast Asian country over the next 30 days.

In its flash appeal for funds, the WHO said the high numbers of casualties and trauma injuries are at high risk of infection due to limited surgical capacity in the country, while the underlying conditions in Myanmar meant the quake is likely to intensify the risk of diseases.

“WHO has classified this crisis as a Grade 3 emergency – the highest level of activation under its Emergency Response Framework,” it said.

According to the agency, in Myanmar, preliminary assessments indicated high numbers of casualties and trauma-related injuries, with urgent needs for emergency care. Electricity and water supplies remain disrupted, worsening access to health services and heightening risks of waterborne and food-borne disease outbreaks.

Trauma-related injuries – including fractures, open wounds, and crush syndrome – are at high risk of infection and complications due to limited surgical capacity and inadequate infection prevention and control.

The WHO said it needs 8 million USD to respond to the immediate health needs over the next 30 days to save lives, prevent disease, and stabilise and restore essential health services. Without immediate funding, lives will be lost and fragile health systems will falter, the agency noted.

The WHO said hospitals are overwhelmed, while the scale of deaths, injuries and damage to health facilities are not yet fully understood. The agency said displacement into overcrowded shelters, combined with the destruction of water systems and sanitation infrastructure, had sharply increased the risk of communicable disease outbreaks, particularly cholera and dengue.

The WHO said the first supplies of trauma kits to treat severe wounds and fractures, and multi-purpose tents, to also create space for the increasing number of injured, had reached a 1,000-bed hospital in the capital of Naypyidaw, having been sent from an emergency stockpile in Yangon. Similar supplies are en route further north to Mandalay General Hospital.

🎀 The 7.7-magnitude quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay on March 28 has left more than 1,700 deaths, 3,400 people injured and 300 still missing in the country./.