Health experts will analyze the response to the Indian Ocean tsunami at a conference starting Wednesday on battered Phuket island so that emergency workers are better prepared for the next disaster, AP quoted the sources of the United Nations as saying. The Dec. 26 tsunami struck 11 countries, with the official death toll standing at more than 176,000 with about 50,000 missing and presumed dead. Several thousand Thais and foreign tourists perished in southern Thailand, most in Phang Nga province north of Phuket. The May 4-6 conference, organized by the U.N. World Health Organization, will analyze what worked and what did not, and come up with approaches to improve the health response to future natural disasters, a WHO statement said. "From measures to prevent epidemics to forensic identification of dead bodies to civil-military cooperation, this disaster broke new ground in dealing with emergencies," the statement said. Specialists in emergency public health and disaster management will discuss why there was no outbreak of disease despite conditions ripe for epidemics, how better to coordinate the large number of voluntary groups and agencies who came to help, and more sensitive ways of dealing with the dead. --more 1141 Local Time 0841 GMT
