WHO on handling corpses during disasters

The World Health Organization (WHO) urged the government to immediately collect and bury the bodies lying on the streets in the aftermath of super typhoon Yolanda. Aside from posing a risk of communicable disease, the WHO said it is important to dispose the dead bodies because of the psychological trauma to those “witnessing death on a large scale.” Among other things, the WHO recommended separate viewing locations for the identification of the bodies and for grieving purposes. In Tacloban City, where the Philippine Red Cross estimated at least 1,200 to be dead, WHO standards require an area of over 2,000 square meters if it is to be used to display bodies for identification. The organization also discouraged burial in common graves and mass cremation, and preferred burial over cremation. It released a set of guidelines for the proper handling of the bodies.

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