Nearly 500 federal public health specialists will be deployed
throughout the storm-ravaged Gulf Coast region in an attempt to ward
off a variety of food- and water-borne diseases, but the most serious
health threat these areas face will be psychological problems brought
on by stress, the head of the Centers of Disease Control and
Prevention said Thursday.
Calling Hurricane Katrina "our own tsunami," CDC Director Julie
Gerberding said the 24 20-member teams headed for the area will
include experts in infectious diseases and environmental health.
They will join about 30 CDC workers already in Louisiana who are
helping assess the situation, determine the care patients need and
deliver basic materials such as antibiotics, tetanus vaccine and cots
for field hospitals, agency spokesman Tom Skinner said.
The state Department of Health and Hospitals has asked CDC to send
experts in environmental health, infectious diseases and
immunizations, but they will not be needed for a few weeks because the
top priority now is finding and rescuing people and getting them to
medical care, spokeswoman Kristen Meyer said.
"We haven't seen a lot of diseases because the things that put
people at risk are being in floodwater and cleaning up after
floodwater," she said. "Most evacuees haven't had a chance to go back
home."
To head off a possible outbreak of tetanus in Mississippi, the CDC
has sent 8,000 doses of tetanus vaccine to Mississippi, Gerberding
said.
Although federal health specialists will work with local personnel
in treating a variety of food- and water-borne diseases such as
hepatitis A, diarrhea and intestinal infections, the biggest -- and
longest-lasting -- health-care concern probably will be psychological
problems brought on by stress, Gerberding said in a telephone news
conference.
"When you have no home, you have no money, and you have no job, . .
. the long-term consequences are overwhelming," she said. "We will
have mental-health experts at every location."
These specialists will treat not only patients but also caregivers
"because they are affected by the damages and the families" they see,
Gerberding said.
Among the CDC contingent will be people who have worked in refugee
camps around the world, she said.
More information about hurricane-related health concerns is
available at dhh.emergencynews.com.
One particular area of concern, she said, will be the possibility
of a rise in West Nile virus infections as a result of the high amount
of water that Katrina dumped on Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama --
water that could be breeding grounds for virus-carrying mosquitoes.
"We've got to coordinate surveillance of infections," she said.
Because Katrina was "more like a tsunami than a hurricane," Gerberding
said the need for medical help in the devastated region will be vast
-- so vast that qualified civilian doctors are being asked to join the
CDC teams for what could be a protracted period.
"We're in a marathon, not a sprint," she said..
