According to the Counsellor-Minister of the Brazilian Embassy in Thailand, Fernando José de Carvalho Lopes, the effort to help Brazilians in the region affected by last weekend’s tidal wave continues.
According to Lopes, Ambassador Marco Antônio Brandão Diniz is in Puket right now, where some Brazilians need emergency passports.
He explained that this document is issued to people who lost their original passport and need the document to proceed on their journey. These people, he added, were not victims of the tidal wave, however.
The health coordinator of the international non-governmental organization, Doctors Without Frontiers of Brazil, Mauro Nunes, informed that the NGO is sending volunteer teams from various countries to the affected regions.
According to Nunes, the Doctors Without Frontiers is worried about the spread of diseases such as cholera, malaria, typhus, and hepatitis, common in situations like this.
Nunes recalled that salt water has contaminated water sources and entered sewage systems in the cities hit by tidal waves and that this condition is favorable to the outbreak of diseases.
The coordinator informed that the Brazilian volunteers from the organization are prepared to assist victims.
Translation: David Silberstein
Agência Brasil