Posted on 09/03/2005 5:19:45 PM PDT by wagglebee
From dehydration to potential outbreaks of infectious diseases, health care threats along the swamped Gulf Coast concerned military officials on Friday as they beefed up medical evacuations.
The more immediate threats to public heath are dehydration, malnutrition and intestinal problems, said Maj. Gen. Bruce Green, the Air Force's assistant surgeon general.
"If we can get people to where there is food and water and sanitation, we can avoid most of the diseases," Green said.
Standing water throughout New Orleans could provide a breeding ground for mosquitoes carrying West Nile virus, Green said, and raw sewage seeping through the city could pose the threat of cholera.
Other health experts, including those from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have said that cholera and typhoid are not high risks for the area.
The Pentagon, meanwhile, dropped preparations to send a second hospital ship to the Gulf Coast. Military commanders heading up the relief effort determined that Navy forces already in the area were adequate to meet needs.
It would take the USNS Mercy about two weeks to get to the Gulf Coast from its base in San Diego.
The initial announcement to send the hospital vessel came amid growing criticism that the Bush administration has responded too slowly to the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. President Bush himself conceded Friday that the federal effort so far has been unacceptable.
Medical evacuations were increasing Friday, particularly from the New Orleans International Airport, where the Air Force set up a 50-bed hospital with 130 doctors, surgeons, nurses and other staff.
So far, about 700 patients have been evacuated by Air Force teams using four C-17 and seven C-130 cargo planes. Many of the patients were from the 11 hospitals in the region, but at least 1,000 patients, including some critically ill, were still waiting to be moved to medical facilities in Houston, Dallas, Atlanta and San Antonio.
Also Friday, Air Force units were working to reopen the severely damaged Keesler Air Force Base in Mississippi. And they were making plans to bring commercial planes into New Orleans International Airport to begin transporting refugees to shelters in Texas.
Meanwhile, service members from across the military were flowing into Louisiana and Mississippi to help meet the growing humanitarian needs of the hundreds of thousand of residents left homeless and hungry.
Three trucks carried water and 150,000 meals for refugees in the New Orleans Superdome, and military transport planes were sent to fly people from New Orleans to Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. Altogether, the military is sending 9.3 million ready-to eat meals for refugees in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
I hope that for the most part, the disease end of this can be avoided. If only folks would have evacuated, very little of the current crisis involving humans would have taken place.
I do to concerning that displaced people from NO may have infectious diseases are coming into other communities across the country
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