UNICEF/WHO step up rehabilitation assistance

UNICEF/WHO step up rehabilitation assistance
by -
Mizzima News
Burma's citizens will soon be the beneficiaries of a new $440,000 investment into vaccination facilities inside the country.

Burma's citizens will soon be the beneficiaries of a new $440,000 investment into vaccination facilities inside the country.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have confirmed that a cold chain facility capable of storing an eight month supply of six vaccinations will soon arrive in Burma.

The international organizations argue that the enhanced vaccination capabilities in Burma are especially valuable at this time, as the country continues to recover from the devastating effects of Cyclone Nargis this past May.

"Immunization is vital in the survival of Myanmar's children," according to UNICEF's Osamu Kunii, "especially in areas affected by disaster, where diseases easily spread."

Included in the vaccinations is one to prevent polio, which saw 15 reported cases in the country in 2007 following what had been believed to be the eradication of the affliction in the Southeast Asian country.

Fears expressed by several rights and advocacy groups in the days and weeks immediately following the cyclone that the country hovered on the verge of an enormous health crisis have so far failed to materialize.

UNICEF officials, speaking earlier this week, were also insistent that the recovery operation – which according to local NGOs could last as long as four years – is proceeding apace and opening up new opportunities for international organizations inside the country.

However, in late June Burma Campaign UK offered one of several indictments of the humanitarian delivery of aid inside Burma, accusing Save the Children UK of deviating from organizational procedures in the delivery of aid through Burma's military and in the involvement of a known business associate of the junta's with the program.