GENEVA, May 29 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) will help support vaccination campaigns and set up a disease surveillance system in Indonesia's quake-hit island of Java, the UN organization said on Monday.

    WHO will help organize vaccination campaigns against measles, which can be a major killer and spreads rapidly in crowded areas, said a WHO statement.

    It will also help to set up a disease surveillance system in order to detect and control outbreaks of communicable diseases, including diarrhoeal disease, the statement said.

    Besides, WHO has sent vehicles loaded with medicines and communications equipment into the quake-hit area, including with emergency health kits containing drugs and medical supplies for 50,000 people for three months, along with surgical kits to support 600 operations.

    The devastating earthquake hit the island of Java on Saturday. The latest available figures show that an estimated 5,000 people died and several thousand were injured, including some 1,500 very seriously injured patients who need urgent medical evacuation and care.

    About 200,000 people are displaced from their homes. Bantul District, south of the ancient city of Yogyakarta and with a population of about 790,000, is reported to be the worst hit with the majority of houses destroyed.

    Prior to the earthquake there were already 29,000 internally displaced persons in the area who had been moved out of their communities as a precautionary measure against the possible eruption of Mt. Merapi.

    Clean water, safe sanitation and waste removal will rapidly be needed, particularly for people who have been displaced, in order to prevent the spread of water-borne diseases, the WHO said. Enditem