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  • Health Threats Grow in New Orleans

    Is this a horror movie?


    http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050901/D8CB76E80.html

    Health Threats Grow in New Orleans


    Aug 31, 11:20 PM (ET)

    By MARILYNN MARCHIONE

    As a public health catastrophe unfolded Wednesday in New Orleans, hospitals in the Crescent City sank further into disaster, airlifting babies without their parents to other states and struggling with more sick people appearing at their doors.

    Dangerous, unsanitary conditions spread across the city, much of which now sits in a murky stew of germs.

    The federal government declared a public health emergency for the Gulf Coast region, promising 40 medical centers with up to 10,000 beds and thousands of doctors and nurses for the hurricane-ravaged area.

    In a stunning example of how desperate the situation has become, 25 babies who had been in a makeshift neonatal intensive care unit at New Orleans' Ochsner Clinic were airlifted Wednesday to hospitals in Houston, Baton Rouge, La., and Birmingham, Ala. Many were hooked up to battery-operated breathing machines keeping them alive.

    Their parents had been forced to evacuate and leave the infants behind; by late in the day, most if not all had been contacted and told where their babies were being taken, said hospital spokeswoman Katherine Voss.

    "We actually encouraged them to leave. It would just be more people to evacuate if there was a problem," said Dr. Vince Adolph, a pediatric surgeon.

    Helicopters had to land on the roof of the parking garage to get the babies because water covered the helipad at the hospital, one of the few in the area that had been operating almost normally.

    "We're getting kind of at the end of our rope," with a skeleton staff of doctors and nurses who have been on duty nonstop since Sunday, Voss said.

    Officials were trying to evacuate 10,000 people - patients, staff and refugees - out of nine hospitals battling floodwaters or using generators running low on fuel. About 300 people were stranded on the roof of one two-story hospital in the New Orleans suburb of Chalmette.

    Yet even as they tried to evacuate, many hospitals faced an onslaught of new patients - people with injuries and infections caused by the storm, people plucked from rooftops who are dehydrated, dialysis and cancer patients in need of their regular chemotherapy or radiation treatments.

    "We have thousands of people who are getting ill ... our hospitals need to be prepared to take care of the incoming sick," said Coletta Barrett of the Louisiana Hospital Association.

    Only about 150 patients were able to be evacuated Wednesday from all nine New Orleans hospitals, said Knox Andress, an emergency room nurse in Shreveport, La. He is regional coordinator for a federal emergency preparedness grant covering the state and is involved in helping place evacuees in other hospitals.

    "We're ready for patients and we can't get them. We just can't get them out," he said.

    The government said dozens of medical disaster teams from nearby states were moving into hard-hit areas.

    "We've identified 2,600 beds in hospitals in the 12-state area. In addition to that, we've identified 40,000 beds nationwide, should they be needed," said Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt.

    Storm survivors, particularly in New Orleans where floodwaters remain, face a cauldron of infectious agents, public health experts said.

    "You can think of floodwaters as diluted sewage," said Mark Sobsey, a professor of environmental microbiology at the University of North Carolina.

    Whatever infections people carry go into sewage and can be expected to show up in floodwaters. That includes common diarrheal germs including hepatitis A and Norwalk virus.

    "We are gravely concerned about the potential for cholera, typhoid and dehydrating diseases that could come as a result of the stagnant water and the conditions," said Leavitt.

    However, officials at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health experts said cholera and typhoid are not considered to be high risks in the area. CDC officials suggested Leavitt was simply mentioning examples of diseases that could arise from contaminated food and water.

    Some experts said worries about catching illnesses from being near dead animals or human bodies are somewhat overblown.

    "People who are alive can give you a whole lot more diseases than people who are dead," said Richard Garfield, a Columbia University professor of international clinical nursing who helped coordinate medical care in Indonesia after the tsunami.

    Mosquito-borne diseases may start to emerge within days. West Nile virus and dengue fever are both potential risks following a situation like the one in coastal Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. Officials also cited carbon monoxide poisoning risks to people using generators and stoves.

    "One of the things they have got to do - we've got to plead for - is to make sure that when these hospitals get evacuated, the National Guard or somebody is there putting major security around these hospitals, or they're going to get ransacked. And it's going to make a bad situation even worse," said John Matessino, president of the Louisiana Hospital Association.

    He said the four hospitals in New Orleans' central business district - Tulane, Charity, University and the VA hospital - had the worst problem with would-be looters.

    Days after the storm hit, many people in key positions to help were still struggling to figure out how.

    The Pharmamaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association asked the government to make a public health assessment to guide drug companies.

    "Once we know what is required, we can begin to donate and ship in desperately needed medicines," said a statement from Billy Tauzin, the group's president and former congressman from Louisiana.

    The American Diabetes Association wants to help get insulin and syringes to diabetics and is working with the Red Cross, but the relief agency "is still very much in 'rescue mode,'" an association spokeswoman said.

    Eli Lilly and Co. said it would give $1 million in cash and would match any donations by its U.S. employees to the Red Cross. The company also is donating $1 million in insulin.

    The American Medical Association's Center for Public Health Preparedness and Disaster Response was trying to figure out a system to help coordinate doctors who want to volunteer.

    "It's going to take years - years - to rebuild the medical infrastructure. There will be continuing health needs," said Dr. James J. James, the center's director.

    ---

    Associated Press writers Melinda Deslatte and Janet McConnaughey in Baton Rouge, La., Mike Stobbe in Atlanta, and Randolph Schmid in Washington, D.C., contributed to this story.

  • #2
    Re: Health Threats Grow in New Orleans

    Sewage in Floodwaters Carries Disease
    Email this Story

    Sep 1, 12:02 PM (ET)

    By JOHN HEILPRIN

    http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050901/D8CBIBR02.html

    WASHINGTON (AP) - Sewage and chemicals are mixed into a potentially toxic bathtub soaking New Orleans, posing the threat of disease for residents forced to wade in Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters.

    "Probably the more immediate health risk to the people is that whatever was in the sewer is in the water," said John Pardue, director of the Louisiana Water Resources Research Institute at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. "Whatever bacterial or viral diseases that people put into the system before the flooding is now in the water."

    Meanwhile, scientists say they're alarmed by how much of the region's environmental defenses against future hurricanes and other big storms have become seriously compromised.

    Officials with the U.S. Geological Survey who flew over the Gulf Coast from Florida to Louisiana said Thursday that most of the Chandeleur chain of barrier islands - the first line of storm defense for eastern Louisiana and western Mississippi - appears to be gone. What is usually a continuous line of dunes is now just marshy outcrops, said Ann Tihansky, a hydrologist with the survey. "It's unbelievable," she said, after reviewing the results of an aerial video survey.

    "It just makes the coastline more and more susceptible because more of that storm surge can move further inland," said Glenn Guntenspergen, a U.S. Geological Survey landscape ecologist who has studied the effect of hurricanes on Gulf Coast ecosystems.

    With the loss of the islands and wetlands that buffer the region, he said, "It becomes less and less likely for the systems to be able to recover from these kinds of storms. The systems as a whole are rapidly losing their ability to recover."

    Along with the sewage in the floodwater is a witches' brew of chemicals from a variety of sources, including leaking fuels and oils from gas stations and submerged cars, paints and solvents from small businesses and household cleaners and pesticides from peoples' homes.

    But the biggest chemical plants and refineries to the south and east of the city were spared a direct hit by the hurricane. If that had happened, breaches in large tanks and other industrial facilities might have spewed heavy petroleum, hydrocarbons and chlorine gas.

    "From the perspective of chemical or environmental contamination, it could have been much worse. One advantage is that we have so much water in the city and that dilutes out the chemicals," Pardue said. "People shouldn't have an irrational fear of chemicals in the water. I'm more concerned about the viral and bacterial things. There's going to be a lot of gastrointestinal and public health issues."

    Besides the broken sewage systems polluting the floodwaters, breached drinking water systems are no longer functioning.

    Sam Coleman, a regional director for EPA's Superfund toxic waste division in Dallas, said he could not predict how long it would take to clean, disinfect and then test the hundreds of small community drinking water systems that no longer work because of the loss of power.

    "Personally, I've never seen anything like this," he said. "No one has quite seen it this bad.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Health Threats Grow in New Orleans

      Nope, it's the real thing and just a taste of what will come upon the earth. (I think I need some ice cream)...

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Health Threats Grow in New Orleans

        Yea, I know Janet. It's just surreal. Your right, though, this is only a tast. By the way, I just saw a video clip of Shephard Smith reporting...he was standind by a dead man on a bridge, who apparently officials continued to pass by. Was a prime example of how chaotic it is. The man may have died from the heat; nevertheless, who knows how long it will be until his corpse is removed off the road. You can view the video at Fox's website under the "People are dying" clip.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Health Threats Grow in New Orleans

          Dangerous, unsanitary conditions spread across the city, much of which now sits in a murky stew of germs.

          Was this before or after the Hurricane?

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Health Threats Grow in New Orleans

            This situation is turning into the one like happened in Indonesia. Unfortunately, the only thing I know that could cleanse the entire area is . . . fire. The way things are deteriorating, the people still there, acting the way they are, could very well do this act themselves.

            I know this is harsh. It is also reality. Now that the water is tainted so badly I would not be surprised if fires broke out all over.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Health Threats Grow in New Orleans

              I just finished watching a couple of streamlines at Fox's website and things could get pretty ugly in the next few days. We are talking epidemics here. Malaria, West Nile, dysenteria, e. coli, salmonella, typhoid, shigella, and even tuberculosis is not out of the question. With these stagnant waters that will become worse over the next couple of days, even touching the water can cause serious illness. But touching the water is for some people their only means to reach dry ground. Then you have these "refugees" packed by the thousands, where many will begin to have intestinal problems such as vomitting and diahrrea, which will cause rapid spread of disease. But this problem is not limited to NO. We may see this arise in shelters in Texas and elsewhere. And to add to the problem, they will be dealing with water and food issues. Serious dehydration will increasingly become a problem and many will die before they will be helped.

              Furthermore, what is going to happen with these thugs? Are we going to see isolated guerilla battles on American streets? These thugs have already proven that they don't care. What's to stop them from firing at our troops down there? I suspect we could see some very violent images over the weekend. Our troops are trained to shoot to kill, and as the LA governor said, she assumes they will. As many on the board have said as well, this is just a taste. This period is setting a precedent for things to come, i.e. troops on American streets, chaos, disease and pestilence, etc.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Health Threats Grow in New Orleans

                I heard one of the talking heads on MSM (main stream media) last night saying that the decaying bodies in the streets poses no health problem at all. That's news to me. That is pure disinformation, IMO.

                Bob

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Health Threats Grow in New Orleans

                  Actually, dead corpses of once healthy individuals don't pose any risk. If someone died of an infectious disease, then that is where the problem lies. Someone dying from a heart attack or high impact would cause no threat. However, one thing did cross mind, this could cause an increase in rat populations, which would further create health risks that could even include hantavirus, a milder yet still possibly lethal virus very similar to ebola virus.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Health Threats Grow in New Orleans

                    Thanks for the info....

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Health Threats Grow in New Orleans

                      np . And thank you in return for all the great info you have been dishing out!

                      Comment

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