Philippine health authorities warned on Monday of disease outbreaks following horror floods, as filthy water covered large areas of Manila and bodies lay in coffins next to survivors at evacuation centres.
More than 115 000 people were dangerously crammed into makeshift centres such as schools and open-air gymnasiums across Manila, the nation’s capital, and surrounding areas that were submerged in Saturday’s floods.
Infections including swine flu, diarrhoea and the bacterial disease leptospirosis were at the top of the government’s list of concerns, Doctor Melissa Guerrero, chief aide to the health secretary, told Agence France-Presse.
”Now that you have a breakdown in your water and sanitation facilities and evacuation sites, the transmission of diseases will be faster,” Guerrero said.
Stagnant water could also become breeding grounds for mosquitoes that spread dengue fever, she warned.
Saturday’s disaster saw tropical storm Ketsana drop the heaviest rain in more than 40 years on Manila and neighbouring areas of Luzon island.
The nine-hour pounding left some areas of Metro Manila, a city of 12-million people, under six metres of water and many areas remained submerged on Monday.
The government said the death toll was at least 100 and more than 450 000 other people had been displaced.
Sanitation conditions at schools, gymnasiums and other buildings that had been turned into evacuation centres were deplorable, Agence France-Presse reporters at the scene observed.
In one makeshift evacuation centre in a riverside Manila village that was inundated by the floods, about 3 000 people crowded in an open-air gymnasium, cooking and sleeping on the cold concrete floor as human faeces lay nearby.
In warm, muggy conditions, 11 bodies were kept inside coffins at the same centre, with homeless survivors resting on the concrete.
Armando Endaya, captain of Bagong Silangan village and in charge of that centre, said relief workers had yet to help them, and they were being forced to fend for themselves and rely on aid from private groups.
”We are waiting for more aid to arrive. We are trying to mobilise our own relief operations here. But we need more help,” Endaya told Agence France-Presse from the gymnasium, which had a roof but no walls.
Healthcare efforts have been further complicated by flooding at four hospitals, which interrupted electrical power or forced the evacuation of patients, said Health Secretary Francisco Duque.
With authorities desperately short of food, medicine, clean water and medics, various national appeals for help were launched on Monday.
The secretary-general of the Philippine National Red Cross, Gwendolyn Pang, urged doctors to volunteer their services.
On national television, she also called on the public to donate soap, shampoo and other cleaning items, as well as bottled water for drinking, to help make up ”hygiene kits”.
The head of the Philippine Medical Association, Rey Melchor Santos, issued similar pleas.
”They [the public] can call our office to send donations. But we want the doctors … so we can send them to the evacuation centres,” he said.
Aside from the help of doctors, Santos appealed for donations of medicines and antiseptics to help fight colds, fevers and diarrhoea. — AFP
