News from PAHO/WHO

Facsimile Service

PAHO's Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Relief Coordination Program has just installed facsimile service at our emergency center in Washington, D.C. We take this opportunity to provide you with our fax number and, at the same time, to list other means by which you can get in touch with us:

Pan American Health Organization
Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Relief Coordination

(outside of the hours of 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, call 861-3200)

New Fax Number: (202) 775-4578
(24 hours a day)

If your organization or agency has facsimile service, please let us know so that we may add your number to our directory.

Disaster Preparedness Update

The sixth edition of the PAHO Disaster Preparedness Update has just been released. Containing approximately 500 cross-indexed entries, this latest edition of the Update reviews published and unpublished documents and reports of potential interest to the health sector of disaster-prone countries. The material abstracted in the Update deals particularly with the health aspects of disaster preparedness, prevention and relief. Documents can be located by crossreferencing for author, subject, or country in which the activity was performed. Address requests for the latest edition of the Disaster Preparedness Update to the Editor of this Newsletter.

WHO to Cosponsor Disasters and Development Conference

WHO will cosponsor an International Conference on Disasters and Development tentatively slated for September 1988. Although the conference will focus primarily on health and development, its scope will be intersectoral. Preliminary agenda items include the long term impact of disasters, surveillance and monitoring systems, information and communication, and management and policy aspects. Further information will be published in subsequent issues of this Newsletter.