As they continue to treat broken limbs and battered
bodies from last week’s earthquake, international relief groups and the
U.S. military are now preparing for the next stage of the disaster:
disease.
“If you think the bodies were piled up high from the earthquake, wait until cholera breaks out,” said Lt. Col.
Tens of thousands of people are trying to escape
devastated capital city. For those who stay, foreign engineers have
started leveling land on the fringes of the city for tent cities,
supposedly temporary, that are meant to house 400,000 people.
The goal is to halt the spread of disease at
hundreds of impromptu settlements that have no water and no place for
sewage. The new camps “are going to be going to places where they will
have at least some adequate facilities,”
sewage systems were rudimentary even before the earthquake. Now fresh
water is scarce, and the smell of raw sewage drifts across the capital.
The homeless camps, including one set up next to a
U.S.-established field hospital on a school soccer field downtown,
force Haitians into tight quarters. Many are forced to use the same,
often untreated, water for drinking, bathing and washing clothes.
“The conditions are ripe” for an outbreak, said Lt. Col.
messages Friday urging Haitians to wash their hands with soap as often
as possible. “Clean hands save lives,” the message implores in Creole;
working-class Haitians do not speak formal French.
“Everyone’s listening to the radio stations,” said the medical corps’
In addition to disease, medical officials are
worried about infections, as poorly or untreated injuries develop
tetanus or other ailments.
said the problem easily could erupt among patients lined up in beds
inside and outside the main hospital where he is volunteering.
“There are all these people who are getting almost
no post-operative care,” Waisel said. “They’re getting dehydrated (in
the sun). One guy gets an infection and passes it to the next. That’s
going to be a disaster. Legs that we saved can get infected, and we
have to amputate anyway.”
Recovery workers are taking some preventive steps,
such as removing the remaining bodies that could contaminate water.
Next they will likely begin importing as much vaccine as possible for
preventable diseases.
Cholera
Cholera is a bacterial infection of the intestine
that is often mild. In severe cases, though, it causes profuse vomiting
and watery diarrhea, and the rapid loss of body fluids leads to
dehydration, shock and, without treatment, death within hours.
People get cholera by drinking water or eating food
contaminated with cholera bacteria, often found in the feces of an
infected person. The disease can spread rapidly in areas with poorly
treated sewage and drinking water.
Cholera can be treated by replacing lost fluids and
salts, through special drinks or intravenous fluids. With prompt
rehydration, fewer than 1 percent of cholera patients die.
—
(c) 2010, The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.).
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