Indonesia to begin mass burials for earthquake, tsunami victims
Jakarta, Oct 1: Indonesian authorities will begin on Monday mass burials for hundreds of people killed in an earthquake and a subsequent tsunami that hit the Sulawesi island on September 28, as search and rescue efforts continued to find more victims and survivors.
The spokesperson for the National Agency for Disaster Management (BNPB), Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, said the mass burials will be held in the outskirts of Palu, one of the city most affected by the disaster where 821 of the 832 victims died, reports Efe news.
Sutopo said that the authorities decided to open the mass grave in order to bury the victims who have already been identified and to prevent the spread of disease.
Meanwhile, rescue teams continue to search for survivors and other victims under the collapsed buildings demolished by the 7.5-magnitude earthquake, which has left 540 people hospitalised and at least 16,732 others displaced.
The authorities are also working to restore basic services such as electricity supply in Palu, where several electric generators were deployed by a Hercules aircraft of the Indonesian Air Force to facilitate the process, according to the BNPB spokesperson.
The Palu airport was reopened to commercial flights on Sunday, but humanitarian aid flights will be given priority, according to the authorities.
The Indonesian Health Ministry is supplying additional medical personnel and equipment.
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5-year-old girl in Kerala dies of infection caused by brain-eating amoeba
Malappuram (Kerala): A five-year-old girl afflicted by amoebic meningoencephalitis, a rare brain infection caused by a free-living amoeba found in contaminated waters, in Malappuram district of Kerala died, official sources said on Tuesday.
The child hailing from Moonniyur panchayat here died on Monday night at the Kozhikode Medical College's Institute of Maternal and Child Health, where she was undergoing treatment for over a week, they said.
According to medical experts, the infection is caused when free-living, non-parasitic amoebae bacteria enter the body through the nose from contaminated water.
The girl had taken bath in a nearby pond on May 1 and by May 10, and showed symptoms of fever, headache and vomiting, the sources said.
The child was on a ventilator and unresponsive to medication. Other children who also took bath along with the girl in the same pond were under observation. However, they were discharged after being found to be free of infection, sources added.
The disease was earlier reported in coastal Alappuzha district in the state in 2023 and 2017.
The main symptoms of the disease are fever, headache, vomiting, and seizures.
