Medical teams head to Gulf for Katrina aftermath
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Experts in sanitation, infectious disease and mosquito-borne illnesses are heading to the Gulf of Mexico region to help cope with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and the CDC is combing its ranks for doctors who can pitch in.
But there is no rush to send hundreds of personnel yet, because it is not clear what is going on and resources must be saved for the long haul, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Julie Gerberding said on Thursday.
“We are planning for a marathon and not a sprint. We will be collaborating with many people…for many months,” Gerberding said.
Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt declared a public health emergency for the entire Gulf region on Wednesday. Gerberding said the Federal Emergency Management Agency was coordinating most of the efforts.
HHS has begun setting up a network of as many as 40 medical shelters with 10,000 beds and 4,000 medical staff. Another 40,000 hospital beds are available nationwide if needed.
Officials are nowhere near able to take a toll of the dead or injured.
“This is just an absolutely extraordinary disaster and if we have any frustrations here it is a lack of communications and a lack of situational awareness in these areas that are just completely cut off,” Gerberding said.
“But until we can really open the roads, and until the water subsides, it is impossible for people to get out there and see what is going on. It is frustrating.”
TEAMS OF 20 EXPERTS
Gerberding said 24 public health teams, each comprised of 20 people, will be deployed.
“They will include infectious disease detection, monitoring prevention and control, including disease surveillance and immunization,” she said.
A shipment of 8,000 doses of tetanus vaccine is en route to vaccinate people with injuries, she said.
The CDC teams will also fill some of the day-to-day health needs of the region, where many hospitals and clinics have been damaged, flooded, cut off or left without electricity.
“With the Food and Drug Administration we are prepared to manage any food- or water-borne disease. Over the next days to weeks we could see the emergence of mosquito populations and West Nile virus,” Gerberding added.
She said experts would also be watching for injuries, which are the most common health problem after most disasters as people try to repair homes and businesses.
“Also, more recently, we have been hearing about episodes of violence, including rape.” She said injury centers would be set up and rape prevention experts ready to help.
CDC’s expertise in helping refugees around the world may be useful in shelters, notably the New Orleans Superdome, where toilets have already failed and many people are crowded together.
Gerberding said the scope of the disaster was so great that the CDC is treating it like the December 26 tsunami that devastated Indian Ocean coastal areas.
“In my mind, the events we are dealing with on the Gulf Coast are more like the tsunami than they are like the usual hurricane,” she said.
“As you recall, we expected a lot of infectious disease problems within the context of the tsunami and were pleasantly surprised,” Gerberding noted. Health experts immediately moved in there to help supply clean water, she added.
“We could see an outbreak today, or we may not ever see an outbreak of infectious disease in this context. It is too soon to say.”
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