Health Emergency Declared Across Disaster Zone

ATLANTA -- The federal government declared a public health emergency in Hurricane Katrina's disaster zone Wednesday, moving the first of up to 40 mobile field hospitals into position and saying it will ask for up to 4,000 medical volunteers.

Within the disaster zone, survivors' needs for clean water, safe food and medical supplies sharpened, with one TV crew broadcasting images of people stranded on a roof next to a sign that said: "Help! Diabetic, need supplies."

But health officials involved in getting help to the Gulf Coast warned that rescuing survivors, rather than protecting them from diseases, would remain their chief priority for the next several days.

And some experts familiar with U.S. public health questioned whether the national network -- which was underfunded for decades and has recently seen new budget cuts -- can handle the United States' largest natural disaster.

"This is the largest test of public health preparedness we have ever had in this country, and it is going to stretch the system," said Dr. Kimberley Shoaf, assistant director of the Center for Public Health and Disasters at the University of California-Los Angeles.

Federal officials began organizing to fight health threats caused by the hurricane, recruiting help from states not affected by Katrina as well as from professional and medical organizations such as the American Hospital Association.

Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt declared a public health emergency in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, a technical maneuver that allows HHS to release emergency funds and waive time-consuming regulations.

Leavitt said HHS would send up to 40 agency-owned mobile field hospitals holding 10,000 hospital beds to safe areas near the devastation. The first 250-bed unit opened Wednesday in Baton Rouge, La., staffed by 38 Public Health Service officers who were sent Sunday night to Jackson, Miss., and immediately admitted 45 patients.

An additional 415 Public Health Service members who work throughout the federal government were told to get ready to leave, and Surgeon General Richard Carmona canceled all leave for the quasi-military PHS Commissioned Corps. At the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 30 staff received orders to deploy today to Louisiana, Mississippi and Washington.

To staff the hospitals and ease strain on hard-hit states, Leavitt called for up to 4,000 medical volunteers from the government, military and private health care.

Health officials said they fear the magnitude of Katrina's effects will not emerge for a while.

"State health departments right now are still looking to be sure that everyone who is alive is rescued and safe -- but they also are starting to deal with no safe drinking water, with protecting the elderly from the heat, with securing safe shelter, with sewage disposal," said Dr. George Hardy Jr., executive director of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, who monitored a conference call between federal officials and health departments.

The chief risks for the thousands displaced by Katrina resemble those faced by the survivors of the Asian tsunami, disaster experts said: diarrheal and respiratory illnesses spread by crowded conditions, wounds infected by contaminated water and made worse by scarce medical care, and infectious diseases spread by burgeoning crops of mosquitoes.

"The most important public health response is to try to bring in clean water for drinking and cleansing and to as quickly as possible restore the infrastructure that permits adequate sewerage and drainage," said Dr. Ralph Feigin, physician-in-chief at Houston's Texas Children's Hospital, which took in almost 100 severely ill children evacuated from two New Orleans hospitals.

Chronic diseases also could become an urgent health problem, experts warned. The affected region includes some of the United States' densest concentrations of diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and kidney failure, which require sophisticated, frequent medical care.

M.A.J. McKenna writes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

E-mail: mmckenna@ajc.com Editor Notes: