Nepal quake: WHO sets up field offices for unreachable survivors

Gorkha (Nepal): The WHO has set up field offices here to extend health care assistance to survivors of the earthquake who have been unreachable since the natural calamity hit the Himalayan nation on April 25.

The World Health Organisation's field offices, that will start operating Monday onwards, will coordinate land and air support to rush medicines, health care professionals and other life-saving resources to some of the most remote regions hit by the earthquake.

Gorkha is a 3-4 hour drive northwest of Kathmandu and has been selected as the first major health hub outside the capital.

"Health care services are being delivered in built-up areas in Gorkha and those that still can be reached by road," said Hyo-Jeong Kim, WHO's emergency operations manager, who was on a two-day field visit to the hilltop village of Katteldanda in Gorkha that was devastated by the earthquake.

She said the global healthcare institution has identified seven communities in an area not easily accessible, and where there are about 6,000 people who have not been reached with services since the earthquake struck.

Kim said there was an urgent need to provide medical support to the people and treat them for injuries and infections.

"Pregnant women are also needed to be given rapid access to care for safe deliveries and to ensure that any complication of pregnancy or birth is rapidly addressed," she said.