Tsunami - diseases and health news
5 January 2005
First disease outbreaks reported
The first outbreaks of communicable diseases were
now being seen in areas hit by last Sunday's (26 Dec 2004) killer
waves in Asia, a senior WHO official said today, 2 Jan 2005.
"There are increasing reports of diarrhoeal
disease outbreaks coming from displaced persons' settlements in
Sri Lanka, in India," said David Nabarro, the top official
at the WHO dealing with humanitarian crises.
However he said the initial signs were not cause
for alarm, although preventive measures and treatments must continue.
"They are not causing us alarm because we expect this,"
he said.
"What we need to do is to make sure that we
continue to distribute all rehydration salts and treatment for diarrhoea
and we continue to do our work in sanitation and water supplies."
The death toll from the catastrophe has now edged
towards 126 000.
Information from ProMED Mail www.promedmail.org
