Originally published October 13 2005
South Asian earthquake leaves survivors vulnerable to disease
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
In the absence of food and drinking water, health officials fear cholera, plague and diarrhea-related illnesses will wreak further havoc on the Pakistani people affected by the recent earthquake.
An earthquake victim child waits to get aid at a makeshift shelter in Muzaffarabad Only two thirds of children are immunised against measles With 23,000 people dead and more than 1m made homeless by the South Asian earthquake, fears of disease have been raised.
Health officials and aid workers on the scene have warned unless fresh water and food are made available potentially-deadly diseases such as cholera, plague and diarrhoea-related illnesses will take hold.
Our fear is that diseases such as cholera will take hold as people become desperate.
"The risk is that they will have to drink contaminated water.
Medical help is needed if the situation is not going to get worse.
But many of the areas are very difficult to reach."
And the World Health Organization said it was worried about malaria and measles, which is already endemic in the region.
But less than a week after the disaster, other diseases have already started taking hold.
Irfan Ahmed, a doctor with the British-based charity Plan, who has been helping people in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province, said gangrene and diarrhoea were spreading.
In the aftermath of the South Asia tsunami, experts predicted the death toll from disease could dwarf those killed by the wave.
Dr Ron Behrens, a disease expert at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: "In the case of the US people were, eventually, removed from the area so disease never took hold.
"With the tsunami, what is interesting is that while many people died initially, it did not damage the infrastructure such as water supply and sewage disposal to the scale this earthquake may have.
"The really important factor is this environmental health.
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