U.S. army medics treat Bangladesh cyclone victims

By Nizam Ahmed

PATUAKHALI, Bangladesh (Reuters) - Hundreds of people injured in Bangladesh's worst cyclone since 1991 flocked on Friday to a field hospital set up by a U.S. army medical team in the badly affected coastal district of Patuakhali.

Cyclone Sidr hit the impoverished South Asian country on November 15 with winds of 250 kph (155 mph) and a 5-foot tidal surge, killing around 3,500 people, leaving thousands missing or injured, and displacing 2 million.

Some 300 survivors with broken limbs, cuts and bruises crowded into the hospital for treatment by the American surgeons and physicians.

"We are here to assist the Bangladesh government during an emergency situation following the cyclone," said Colonel Thomas M. Bailey, chief of the U.S. medical team.

Meanwhile, the United Nations food agency has unveiled a $52 million, six-month plan to provide emergency aid to 2.2 million Bangladeshi victims of the storm.

The aim is to avoid a repeat of the surge in malnutrition rates that typically follows a cyclone in Bangladesh, the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) said on Thursday in a statement.

"This time, WFP will start longer-term distributions to families with hopes of preventing increases in malnutrition throughout the region," said Josette Sheeran, the agency's executive director.

The emergency operation would follow the just-completed U.N. assessment that found roughly 4.7 million people living in the worst affected areas with 2.2 million needing immediate food assistance, the WFP said.

"While immediate food aid such as high energy biscuits continue to be rushed into the cyclone-hit areas, WFP is now ready to begin a longer-term, more comprehensive food assistance programme that will get nutritious foods directly to the children who need it the most," said WFP Bangladesh Representative Douglas Broderick.

Despite intensified relief efforts, supervised by the Bangladesh army and helped by the U.S. navy and helicopters, many survivors in remote areas had yet to receive food and water, reporters said.

Bangladesh's army-backed interim government has said no one would be left out of the relief effort.

The U.S. medical facility opened in the Patuakhali hospital compound on Monday. "So far we have treated about 700 people for injuries and malnutrition," said Bailey.

He said he was unsure how long this medical assistance would continue. "The situation will hopefully become normal soon."

Bangladesh health officials said the presence of the U.S. army medical unit had greatly eased pressure on local physicians to cope with the increasing flow of patients.

"They brought us timely help when the number of patients was rising, after the communications disrupted by the cyclone had been restored," said Major Mohammad Abrar Hossain of the Bangladesh army medical corps. (Additional reporting by Ruma Paul; editing by Roger Crabb)