The Hindu : International : Water, not bodies, is major threat

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 31, 2004

International

International

Water, not bodies, is major threat

By Sarah Boseley— Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

LONDON, DEC. 30. Disease could double the death toll from the tsunami in Asia, according to the World Health Organisation, but the enemy is not the putrefying bodies that are still unburied but the collapse of the clean water supply.

Those who did not perish in the floodwaters may yet die of waterborne diseases.

Public health experts say that cholera, typhoid and diarrhoeal diseases, which were already present in some of the countries hit by the tsunami, could spread rapidly in crowded camps with poor sanitation. And there are fears that mosquitoes carrying malaria and dengue fever will breed in stagnant pools left in the wreckage and spread potentially lethal sickness.

The idea that dead bodies are a hazard is ``one of the biggest myths of disease,'' said Gregory Hartl, spokesman for the World Health Organisation. ``Bodies themselves do not cause disease. Most viruses can only survive at temperatures of 38C.'' Within an hour or so of death, he said, there is little danger of infection even if the person has died of an infectious disease.

``Somebody handling a body immediately after death should take the precaution of wearing gloves, but they are not a public health hazard,'' he said.

A study carried out this year by Oliver Morgan of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found that, in natural disasters, people usually die of their injuries and are unlikely to have infections that can cause epidemics.

Infectious agents

There was a slight risk that those disposing of bodies might be exposed to infectious agents such as hepatitis B and C, HIV and tuberculosis, but they would be safe if they took precautions such as washing their hands or wearing gloves.

Jost van der Meer, a health adviser to Medecins sans Frontieres in the Netherlands, believed an outbreak of diarrhoeal disease was the most likely health problem.

``All the water and sanitation structures will have been destroyed,'' he said. ``The septic tanks will have overflowed. There will be no clean drinking water.''

Linda Doull, health director of Merlin (Medical Emergency Relief International), said children would be first hit by diarrhoeal disease, and adults would follow if insufficient help was given.

``It sounds dramatic when you hear it, but go back to Goma in 1994, when 20,000 people died of cholera,'' she said, referring to those fleeing from Rwanda into Zaire who ending up in insanitary camp conditions.

Safe water would have to be trucked in where possible, and wells could be made safe by chlorination, she said. But there would soon be a further problem.

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