AFP: A year after an earthquake killed 31,000 people in the southern Iranian city of Bam, thousands still need psychological help, the International Federation of Red Cross and Crescent Societies said Monday. The impact of the quake continues to manifest itself through “sleeping disorders, the inability to complete routine tasks, explosive behavior, domestic violence and a dramatic increase in drug dependence,” said the IFRC. AFP
GENEVA – A year after an earthquake killed 31,000 people in the southern Iranian city of Bam, thousands still need psychological help, the International Federation of Red Cross and Crescent Societies said Monday.
The impact of the quake continues to manifest itself through “sleeping disorders, the inability to complete routine tasks, explosive behavior, domestic violence and a dramatic increase in drug dependence,” said the IFRC.
Iran’s most devastating earthquake in a quarter of a century struck the two-thousand-year-old city on December 26 last year, destroying 85 percent of its buildings and killing nearly 31,000 people.
Seventy-five thousand people were left homeless by the disaster.
The increase in drug use after the quake has been exacerbated by the fact that Bam lies on the drug route from Afghanistan and Pakistan towards Europe.
The humanitarian organisation reached its conclusions after interviewing more than 20,000 victims of the disaster, including 5,600 people receiving individual or collective psychological counseling.
