Friday, March 24 2006 17:14 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Hit periodically by natural disasters, South Asian countries would now have a special Health Disaster Management Manual for better preparedness to tackle the calamities.

This manual is being specially prepared by the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Medical Association, formed on January 6 this year in Dhaka under the stewardship of Bangladeshi Prime Minister and current SAARC chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia to take up health related issues affecting the region.

"We have unique problems common to us, phenomenally different from the West. But we realised that we are never prepared to tackle health issues during a disaster. This prompted us to prepare a special Health Disaster Management Manual," SAARC Medical Association (SMA) President Dr Sanjiv Malik told sources here.

President of Indian Medical Association (IMA), said citing an example that "During the Gujarat earthquake, we realised after two weeks that people urgently needed splinters to treat lower limb injuries. Unfortunately these were not available in the country. We had to amputate the injured persons' limb."

According to him, a scientifically documented manual, dealing with disasters would help in better crisis management and help to tackle epidemic outbreaks linked with certain types of disasters.