WHO arm keeping eye on situation Tripti Nath The WHO South East Asia Regional Office (SEARO) is keeping itself posted of situation in cyclone-ravaged Myanmar. A control room manned by experts is gathering latest information on Nargis cyclone through communication links with the WHO country offices in Myanmar, Thailand and WHO headquarters in Geneva.

A boy feeds his younger brother at a temporary shelter after fleeing cyclone-hit areas in the Irrawaddy division of Myanmar on Thursday. Here are the health questions and answers in the aftermath of cyclone Nargis that slammed Myanmar recently: What is the main health risk after the cyclone?

Natural disasters have increased due to rise in earth's temperature and climate change. According to Centre for Science and Environment(CSE), cyclone Nargis is not only a natural disaster but because of climate change it has become a man-made disaster.

Sri Lanka has taken significant strides in disaster prevention and mitigation since the Boxing Day catastrophe in 2004, said Disaster Management and Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe launching the seventh meeting of the regional Committee on Disaster Management yesterday. While calling the tsunami as an eye opener, the Minister noted that the country had come a long way with an effective mechanism in place today to counter such disasters in the future.

Braving high velocity winds, the Indian Air Force's largest transport aircraft landed in Yangon on Thursday carrying relief supplies for the cyclone-hit people of Myanmar. On Wednesday, two smaller IAF planes discharged relief supplies under "Operation Sahayata.' INS Rana and INS Kirpan, despite inclement weather, berthed alongside a naval jetty in Yangon and they were received by Myanmar Minister for Social Welfare Relief and Resettlement Maung Maung Swe at a brief handing-over ceremony. Indian Embassy Charge-de-Affaires Manoj K. Bharti was present.

The United Nations estimated 1.5 million people have been "severely affected" by the cyclone that swept through Myanmar, with the United States expressing outrage on Thursday at delays in allowing in aid. In Myanmar, desperate survivors cried out for food, water and other supplies nearly a week after 100,000 people were feared killed by Cyclone Nargis as it swept across the farms and villages of the low-lying Irrawaddy delta region.

Yangon: The first of the UN's relief planes landed in Myanmar on Thursday as a US diplomat warned that the toll in Cyclone Nargis could be over 100,000, signalling a humanitarian crisis way beyond the military junta's estimates so far. Worldwide condemnation of the junta also grew, for keeping US aid planes at bay, even as thousands of hungry people swarmed the few open shops and fistfights broke out over food and water in the swamped Irrawaddy Delta.

Burma's isolationist regime finally gave clearance on Thursday for the first major international airlift of food for survivors of a devastating cyclone after delays that frustrated aid agencies, but US flights remained grounded due to lack of access, officials said. With a death toll that could eventually exceed 100,000, according to a top US diplomat, Burma's generals were still stalling on visas for UN teams urgently seeking entry to ensure aid is delivered to the victims.