Floodwaters carry with them a major threat of disease

[norml]

Posted on Tue, Aug. 30, 2005


Floodwaters carry with them a major threat of disease

BY JACOB GOLDSTEIN AND FRED TASKER

Knight Ridder Newspapers


MIAMI - (KRT) - Flooding in New Orleans could cause major public health problems ranging from diarrhea to West Nile virus, experts said. But on Tuesday, beleaguered medical workers were struggling to keep patients alive.

Contaminated floodwaters can spread such bacteria as E. coli and salmonella, which can be fatal for the very young, the very old and others with weak immune systems, says Dr. Delia Rivera, an expert in infectious diseases at the University of Miami School of Medicine.

Experts said it could be several weeks before the floodwaters - contaminated with toxins including human feces, gasoline and chemicals from industrial sites - are pumped from the city.

Toxic chemicals in the water can cause skin rashes and other ailments, Rivera said.

But while flooding can potentially spread such epidemic-causing diseases as typhoid fever, cholera and leptospirosis, they are not likely to be a problem in the short term because they are not endemic in the United States.

A more serious medium-term risk, Rivera said, might be mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria, dengue fever and West Nile virus.


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http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/nation/12519009.htm

[JanusAscending]

1. I'm surprised the Red Cross isn't giving out typhoid shots!!

I was in a much smaller scale flood in Ct. in 1955, and because of the cemeteries giving up their dead, they were mandatory!! Everyone had to have them,(except infants) Even then, my three wk. old baby girl had terrible diarrhea, and we boiled all the water for her formula!!

[AspenRose]

2. Not to mention the venomous snakes and rats

We need to keep praying for those folks. And doing what we can on this end (donating blood, cash, etc)

[Endangered Specie]

3. dont forget the swarms of red ants...

one red ant may not be much but 1000000 is a whole nother can of worms.

[expatriate]

4. All the old stories about Hurricane Betsy (1965 I think)

keep coming into my mind. The foul water flooding everything, the people trapped in attics drowning and dying of the heat, snakes and fire ants in the water - and the cemetaries giving up their dead. I was six then, living in Baton Rouge, which was hard hit enough, but New Orleans was a mess. Not what it is now, this is unprecedented, but it was terrible.

There was a lot of disease then. Now the population burden of the area is even larger.

And all of Southern Louisiana is a toxic waste nightmare. Chemicals and dangerous substances galore - and that's getting into the floodwaters too.

[no_hypocrisy]

5. I'm surprised no one's mentioned cholera.

http://www.tdh.state.tx.us/ideas/vibrio/cholerae/faqs/

[librechik]

6. also lots of terrible chemicals, now in the rising water (Superfund site)

AMY GOODMAN: We're talking about the devastating Hurricane Katrina that has hit very hard four states. And we're focusing on New Orleans right now, but also looking at Mississippi and Alabama. We are joined by Damu Smith, who is the head of Black Voices for Peace. We're also joined by Robert Shimek, Special Projects Coordinator of Indigenous Environmental Network; and David Helvarg, he’s author of the book Blue Frontier: Saving America's Living Seas. David Helvarg, you talk about the big bowl, New Orleans, causing a witch's brew. What do you mean?

DAVID HELVARG: Well, just the toxics, as was just being said. Between just Baton Rouge and New Orleans there's some 36 petrochemical complexes, a lot of these pollutants. It's historically been known as cancer alley. And as stated, a lot of poor people have been impacted. These waters, as well as all the household toxics and pollutants, as well as the cemeteries, a lot of which are above ground in New Orleans, will all be in the waters that are flooding this region. It's in that sense a witch's brew. It's a very toxic environment that's being generated, just as has happened when you had the flooding in North Carolina that went through the hog industry there. Here, it's the petrochemical industry that puts people's health at risk. And the risks are expanding exponentially. It's not just poor people -- bearing the brunt of the -- climate change all --

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/30/1354246

[tsuki]

7. I believe that they have force mains for sewage, which when the

power is cut, moves backward in the system until it is released in the streets.