Quake-hit Nabire faces shortage of medicines

The Jakarta Post, Jayapura/Kupang/Yogyakarta

Health workers in Papua are breathing easier after more people were discharged from Nabire Hospital on Tuesday, following a series of devastating earthquakes that have killed 32 people.

However, they are still seriously concerned about treating outbreaks of disease after the tremors, and say hospitals are running short of essential supplies.

More than a week after the main 6.4 magnitude quake on Nov. 25 killed more than 20 people and injured hundreds of others, only one person in a serious condition remained in hospital, staff said.

The number of people being treated for post-quake diseases was also down to less than 70, after more than 2,000 were treated at the hospital during the past week, the hospital director said.

Dr. Pieter Poddala said from Nov. 28 to Dec. 5, records showed that 2,009 people had been brought to the hospital for medical treatment, suffering from malaria, chronic diarrhea and respiratory infections.

As of Monday, only 27 people with malaria, 15 with diarrhea and 26 with respiratory infections remained at the hospital, he said.

The spread of post-earthquake diseases was attributed to poor sanitation and a lack of available shelter for residents following the quakes, which destroyed hundreds of buildings and other public infrastructure in the area.

Others who had homes still standing chose to stay outdoors because they feared more aftershocks.

Garbage and refuse has piled up in the area, and people have became easy targets for the anopheles mosquito, the carrier of the malaria virus.

Poddala said that the hospital was running out of medicine and other supplies, and more were urgently needed. While the hospital had received many kinds of medicines, most were of the general kind and not specialized for treating post-quake diseases, he said.

"The supply of general medicines is huge, but we can't use it, so it would be better to send us specific medicines that fit our needs," Poddala said.

Antibiotics, multivitamins, analgesics, needles and surgical gloves were among supplies the hospital could not do without, he said.

Meanwhile, aftershocks continued to rattle the city on Monday, but no more fatalities were reported. The local meteorological office reported that 72 aftershocks occurred in the city between 12 a.m and 9 a.m that morning.

Up to 10 people are suspected to have died in the aftershocks, pushing up the death toll to 32 from the 17 initially reported dead shortly after the first quake on Friday.

Separately in Yogyakarta, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered Vice President Jusuf Kalla on Monday to visit Nabire, observe the impact of the earthquake and talk with locals. Kalla was also ordered to visit Alor, East Nusa Tenggara, which was also rocked by a major earthquake on Nov. 13. The Alor quake claimed at least 34 lives and injured hundreds.

In the high-profile but belated visit, Kalla would be accompanied by the Coordinating Minister of the People's Welfare, Alwi Shihab, the State Minister of the Environment, Rachmat Witoelar, and the Minister of Public Works, Joko Kirmanto.

"We have received a letter from the State Palace, telling us the Vice President will visit Nabire on Tuesday and this will be followed by another visit to Alor," said Umar Katili, the secretary of the Nabire disaster management command.

Besides Jusuf Kalla, former president and Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle leader Megawati Soekarnoputri is also scheduled to visit Nabire on Dec. 9.

Muhammadiyah, the second-biggest Muslim organization in the country, has handed over Rp 100 million (US$11,111) in aid to victims of the earthquake in Nabire.