UN: No major disease yet, but water and sanitation are key
UN: No major disease yet, but water and sanitation are key
Emma Ross, Associated Press/Jakarta
Hospitals left standing after Asia's killer tsunamis haven't been
swamped by severely injured survivors. Most casualties either
have light wounds or are dead.
But health authorities warn that the worst health crisis may
be just around the corner: Dirty drinking and washing water
combined with lack of proper sewage disposal, they say, are a
recipe for explosive outbreaks of life-threatening diarrhea
diseases such as cholera, typhoid and dysentery, as well as some
forms of hepatitis.
"These are the sort of diseases that could occur any time
now," Dr. Michelle Gayer, an infectious diseases specialist at
the World Health Organization, said Saturday.
More than 123,000 people are reported dead and officials say
the toll is likely to climb as more bodies are found.
Most of the victims were killed by the massive tsunamis that
smashed coastlines after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake last Sunday
off Indonesia's coast.
However, the United Nations has warned that disease may claim
almost as many lives.
The key to avoiding that catastrophe, experts say, will be
basic hygiene -- clean water and toilets. Both have been largely
wiped out in many areas by the devastation of the tsunamis.
These waterborne illnesses are caused by bugs in traces of
feces, which can easily end up in the mouth not only when people
don't wash their hands before eating or preparing food, but also
if plates and utensils are washed in sewage contaminated water.
A common way that such diseases get spread is by fetching
buckets of water from rivers and lakes where people bathe and
defecate.
"We don't really know how the water is being supplied at the
moment," Gayer said. "If it (smells and looks) dirty, people tend
to avoid it, but these organisms don't make the water visibly
dirty."
"These things are completely preventable and they are
reasonably easily preventable," Gayer said. "In this case it's a
massive logistical nightmare, but it is possible to do it."
According to the World Food Program, there have been no
reports of starvation in tsunami-stricken areas, and experts say
they don't expect a threat of starvation. There are food
shortages in many areas, but not critical shortages.
However, a nutrition problem is emerging in the worst hit
location at the northern tip of Sumatra, the Indonesian island
nearest to the epicenter of the quake, said Dr. Georg Petersen,
the WHO representative in Indonesia.
There is enough food coming in, but it's mostly rice and
noodles, which is not enough, even in the short term, to maintain
the immune systems of the struggling survivors, he said.
Malnutrition increases vulnerability to infections. Efforts
are under way, Petersen said, to bring in more nutritious food,
such as high-protein biscuits.
Dead bodies are not a major disease threat, scientists say.
The germs that cause waterborne diseases die with their host, or
within hours afterward.
Cholera can survive a while, but most of the tsunami victims
did not have cholera when they died, so their bodies would not be
a health threat.
Medical experts say there are no disease-causing byproducts
from the decomposition of human flesh.
A second health hazard wave will likely come from malaria and
dengue fever, spread by mosquitoes that breed in stagnant water.
Those illnesses, also life-threatening, are not expected to
show up for another three or four weeks because it is too early
now for the mosquitoes to proliferate and complete the cycle that
spreads the diseases.
The impact of these two killers can also be stifled if
shelters are sprayed with insecticides and if as many pools of
water are eliminated as possible.
Besides water and sanitation, other priorities include
shelter, food and basic medical services so that if people do get
sick they can be treated quickly, reducing the risk that diseases
will spread.
The United Nations Children's Fund is coordinating much of the
water and sanitation effort, preparing a mass distribution of
emergency health kits that include water purification tablets and
disinfectant.
Huge water containers called bladders, which carry 10,000
liters each, are on their way to the hardest hit areas and
technicians in water and sanitation are being drafted in from
around the world.
Bottled water is not considered sustainable after a while,
especially because so many people need the water. The medium-term
goal is to find a dam or lake locally that can provide water that
can then be chlorinated by the aid agencies, trucked to various
locations in huge bladders and distributed in a systematic way.
GetAP 1.00 -- JAN 2, 2005 02:17:39