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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