The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged countries to integrate risk communications into their response planning for public health crises in order to help reduce the consequences of disasters, the Manila-bases WHO Regional Office for the West Pacific said Friday.

In line with this recommendation, health personnel involved in disasters and emergencies recently took part in a four-day regional workshop in Manila on risk and crisis communications to equip them with the necessary skills to plan and implement a suitable and effective risk communications plan, said WHO Regional Office for the West Pacific.

Health personnel from Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam participated in the training program.

Appropriate risk communications procedure fosters public trust and confidence, both of which are vital in a crisis situation, explained Dr Soe Nyunt-U, Director of Health Sector Development of the WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific.

Apart from helping the public better understand the impact of disasters, and avoid misinformation and unnecessary tension among those affected by disasters, good risk communications can prevent ill-informed measures that further aggravate a situation.

Dr Nyunt-U cited a series of super typhoons that hit the Philippines in November 2006 as examples of how the lack of risk communications could result in wrong emergency measures.

"We were concerned about the media reports of the burying of the dead in mass graves in some municipalities," he said. "Mass burials are usually not necessary and are contrary to cultural and scientific practice, as WHO and other international organizations have emphasized in their various guidelines for emergency response. "

Arturo Pesigan, who heads WHO's Emergency and Humanitarian Action unit in the Western Pacific, explained that "the survivors, and not the dead, are more likely to be the source of disease outbreaks if public health care strategies for the survivors and their families are not made a priority."

Every year, more than 100,000 people are killed globally during natural disasters, and millions are injured or disabled, according to WHO statistics.

Misinformation and communication gaps cause unnecessary diversion of staff and resources and pressure from misinformation can force governments to undertake operations that are unnecessary, costly, and time consuming, requiring complicated logistics and coordination, said WHO.

WHO and the South-East Asian Ministers of Education Organization-Tropical Medicine Network, which sponsored the training course, has recommended the development of national training courses on risk communication, integrating training on risk communication in the curricula of health sciences training programs, and continued offering of training courses on risk communication.

It also suggests the development of a pool of trainers on risk communications, and integrating risk communications into disaster risk-reduction planning and management activities.

Source: Xinhua