The grief has only begun
Unhealthy conditions ripe for disease
By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff | December 28, 2004
Survivors from the gargantuan tsunami that swept across Asia will face a host of new threats in the coming days and weeks: viruses and bacteria in the water, diseases seeping from human remains, and the vulnerability to bugs and other predators that comes from having no shelter.
"Whatever number of people have been killed immediately by the tsunami, the possibility of a doubling or a tripling of that number through secondary public-health issues is possible," said Dr. Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.
Many of the health problems likely to emerge will come from water people use for drinking, washing, and cooking that has been contaminated by sewage, human remains, and storm debris. The result, disease specialists predicted, will be epidemics of illnesses such as typhoid fever, which is caused by salmonella bacteria that spread through contaminated water and food.
Those waterborne diseases can spawn fever, diarrhea, and damage to the liver and spleen.
