1.
MV Ambulance arrive at Salt Lake City camp
0.06

2.
MV Cholera suspect into ambulance
0.18

3.
MCV People through ambulance window
0.21

4.
MV Ambulance away
0.26

5.
LV Calcutta street
0.30

6.
MV People outside hospital
0.34

7.
MCV Nurse checks drip on cholera patient
0.37

8.
CU Boy on bed
0.40

9.
CU Doctor attends boy PAN UP doctor's face
0.43

10.
MV Doctor talks to boy
0.46

11.
MV Nurse checks drip on baby
0.51

12.
CU Nurse
0.53

13.
CU Nurse stroking baby' face
0.56

14.
MCV Travelling patients lying on beds
1.07

15.
CU Women patient on bed
1.10

16.
MV Doctor & nurse
1.14

17.
CU Saline bottle
1.15

18.
CU Child's arm gets saline drip PAN to child's face
1.20

19.
MCV Child asleep in cot
1.22

20.
MV Nurse with two children in cot another lifts child from cot
1.28

21.
CU Small boy
1.33

22.
CU Small girl crying
1.34



Initials SGM/0504 SGM/0448



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: The eight million people of Calcutta are showing no signs of panic at the reports - generally made in the foreign press - that they are about to be engulfed in a cholera epidemic spread by the Bangla Desh refugees.

City authorities maintain that by containing the refugees in camps outside the city itself, they have contained any threat of cholera. The closest camp, called Salt Lake City, is then miles from Calcutta's centre. Cholera suspects - mainly young people - among the eight thousand refugees in this camp are taken by ambulance to Calcutta's tow infectious disease hospitals. But these hospitals are crowded, and about five people in the camp itself die each day either from cholera or other chronic forms of gastro enteritis. And on Friday, the World Health Organisation in Geneva called for another million doses of cholera vaccine to be sent to India.

SYNOPSIS: Hygiene authorities in Calcutta, despite reports in the international press that they are about to face an epidemic, maintain that they are containing the cholera threat posed by the influx of Bangla Desh refugees. They have, they say, managed this by containing the refugees in camps outside the city itself. Any cholera suspects found in the camps are taken by ambulance to Calcutta's two infectious disease hospitals.

But in one camp alone, named Salt Lake City, there are eight thousand refugees. And among these, five people die each day from cholera or other forms of chronic gastro-enteritis. At the same time, Calcutta's hospitals are crowded with cholera patients, and more are surely on the way.

The World Health Organisation on Friday called urgently from its Geneva Headquarters for one million more doses of cholera vaccine to be flown into India. From the camp outside Calcutta, typical of the rest of the country, many of the cholera victims are young children.

On the same day, India announced plans to move two million, five hundred thousand refugees away from border areas into fifty new camps. They will be assisted by an international airlift with aircraft from the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain and Australia. Mr Balgovind Verma, India's deputy Minister of Labour and Rehabilitation, said the East Bengalis would be moved to camps in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

But only those proved free of cholera can be moved. The patients in Calcutta's hospitals will be staying where they are for a long time yet.