Katrina's negative health effects persist

BALTIMORE, Oct 19, 2005 (UPI via COMTEX) -- A Johns Hopkins emergency physician is warning Hurricane Katrina's potential for damaging people's health might persist for many months.

Dr. Thomas Kirsch, an assistant professor and director of emergency operations at the Baltimore university's school of medicine, spent five weeks working on public health issues in the Gulf Coast region following the hurricane.

He says large numbers of displaced people are at increased risk of infectious diseases, such as chicken pox, gastroenteritis, scabies and influenza -- all of which can spread quickly in disaster shelters.

In such confined quarters, Kirsch says poor sanitary conditions -- including limited access to clean water and insufficient numbers of toilets -- help spread disease from person to person.

He said people with chronic health conditions face the biggest threats since they lack immediate access to routine medical services for hemodialysis, or access to medications for diabetes, heart disease, HIV or tuberculosis.

Kirsch conducted a medical needs assessment for the American Red Cross in the hurricane-affected Gulf Coast area and found constant monitoring and surveillance are required to contain disease outbreaks.

He detailed his findings in an editorial published this month in The New England Journal of Medicine.

URL: www.upi.com