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Health threats grow in New Orleans
(AP)
Updated: 2005-09-01 15:19
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, reported AP.
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 to
keep 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.
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