The International Rescue Committee has launched its first distribution of emergency items and is procuring other life-saving supplies in an urgent race to avert a health crisis in cyclone-ravaged districts of Myanmar (Burma).
 
The IRC teamed up with a local Myanmar (Burma) organisation to distribute two truckloads of emergency family kits, including mosquito nets, water containers, tarps, clothing, and blankets for cyclone survivors in Kyungyan Kone Township, on the eastern edge of the Irrawaddy Delta.  

Ben Harvey, a water and sanitation expert with the IRC, says 10 days into the disaster, one has to assume that all the water in the region is contaminated by human waste and decaying animal carcasses, which could swiftly lead to outbreaks of disease.
 
"It takes less than a spoonful of contaminated water for a person to come down with dysentery or cholera," Harvey says. "These are highly infectious diseases and untreated can quickly kill in the tens of thousands."
 
The IRC has a comprehensive response plan in place that includes medical assistance, health worker training, water treatment and delivery, latrine construction, distribution of shelter, household and hygiene supplies, health education and waste clean-up and management.  An IRC program similar to this one helped prevent the spread of disease in Aceh, Indonesia after the 2004 tsunami.

Your donation will help the IRC's Emergency Response Team assist the victims of the disaster in Myanmar (Burma).