South Asia earthquake and tsunamis

The South-East Asia earthquake and tsunami, which struck on 26 December 2004, affected 11 countries, killing more than 225 000 and displacing an estimated 1.2 million. The crisis required governments, civil society, humanitarian actors (including non-governmental organizations and donors) and the UN to respond on a scale that had never been seen before.

WHO was able to respond to this disaster thanks to an extraordinary effort at all levels of the Organization, with regional and headquarters staff joining colleagues in WHO's South-East Asia Region to plan and implement WHO's response. Over 200 staff were deployed to the affected countries in the weeks following the disaster. More than 50 departments were involved in providing expertise and technical backup to the field operations.

Information on the crisis and WHO's response

Related documents

• Communicable disease risks and interventions
  pdf, 368kb
• Communicable disease risk assessement: dengue fever in Indonesia, February 2005
  pdf, 93kb
• News release: Tsunami recovery process focuses on long-term health capacity development
• Tsunami wreaks mental health havoc
  Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 83 (6) 2005: 401-480

WHO resources

• Regional Office for South-East Asia
• Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean
• Regional Office for the Americas: Disasters newsletter
• Management of dead bodies in disaster situations

Other resources

• Sri Lanka - health sector response
• Ministry of Health - Thailand
• ReliefWeb updates
• The Virtual Operations On-Site Coordination Center (Virtual OSOCC)
  Facilitates information exchange between responding governments and organizations throughout the relief operation. Registration required.