[Marxism] bulldozing the masses

[Les Schaffer <schaffer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mass graves not necessary for tsunami victims
Philip Ball
Report says need for rapid burial to avert health risks is a myth.

In a field outside Banda Aceh, the Indonesian town devastated by the
tsunami in the Indian Ocean, over a thousand dead bodies were
unceremoniously bulldozed into a mass grave at the end of December.

The indignity of such burial methods adds to the suffering of the
survivors and potentially robs them of a chance to identify the bodies
of relatives and friends. But there seems to be no option. "We're facing
a major health hazard if we leave them lying around," says Azwar Abu
Bakar, acting governor of Aceh.

The tragedy is that this concern about the health risk posed by the dead
is misplaced. A report issued last September by the Pan American Health
Organization (PAHO) addressed the management of dead bodies in disaster
situations. Its findings suggest that the corpses from the 26 December
catastrophe pose no serious risk of spreading infection and disease.

Bodies should always be buried in a way that allows for later
exhumation, says the PAHO report. "The use of common graves should be
avoided in all circumstances," it recommends. The report calls mass
burials "a violation of the human rights of the surviving family members".

Changing beliefs

Yet mass graves have already been used in the wake of the tsunami in
Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand, for fear that the bodies will
otherwise cause epidemics of disease. In Thailand, Red Cross officials
have been told to prepare a grave for 10,000 bodies (which is twice the
current death toll announced by the Thai government). "This may look
insensitive," says a Thai official, "but what else can we do?"

It is widely believed that swift burial is the only way to prevent the
spread of diseases such as cholera. But that is a myth, the PAHO report
reveals. Cholera does not appear spontaneously in the body of a person
who did not have it to begin with. And although harmful bacteria or
viruses in a corpse can in theory be spread by rats, flies, fleas and
other animals, that doesn't tend to happen in practice.

The temperature of a body falls rapidly after death, so even the most
resistant bacteria and viruses die quickly in an animal that has died,
according to PAHO. Past experience shows that unburied dead bodies pose
a negligible risk to those who do not come into physical contact with
them. Handling of bodies by relief workers does, of course, require
protective clothing.

full: http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050103/full/050103-10.html

Published online: 07 January 2005; | doi:10.1038/news050103-10


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