Disease spreads in quake-hit Haiti

Haiti's desperate earthquake survivors faced a new threat yesterday as the UN reported a rise in cases of diarrhoea, measles and tetanus in squalid tent camps for victims.

A vast foreign aid effort is struggling to meet survivors' needs 17 days after the disaster, which killed around 170,000 people and left one million homeless and short of medicine, food and water.

Several medical teams reported increased cases of diarrhoea in the last few days in Haiti, Paul Garwood, a spokesman for the UN World Health Organisation, said in Geneva.

There were also reported cases of measles and tetanus, many of them in the makeshift camps that have sprung up in the parks and open spaces of the devastated capital Port-au-Prince, Mr Garwood said.

Haiti's government and the UN Children's Fund (Unicef) are to launch a vaccination programme next week, with just 58 per cent of children below the age of one having been vaccinated against the diseases before the quake, he said.

There was also a "critical need" for specialists in orthopaedic and internal surgery, he said, estimating that between 30 and 100 amputations were taking place per day at Haitian hospitals.

The 7.0-magnitude quake on January 12 decimated Haiti's already meagre health system, creating conditions for disease to thrive in cramped refugee camps.

Only one person in two among the Haitian population of more than nine million people has access to clean drinking water, and only 19 per cent have decent sanitation.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said separately that it had sent eight mobile X-ray units to Haiti to help with an estimated 250,000 people injured in the quake.

They would also help in the upcoming rainy season when thousands of homeless people were likely to start suffering from respiratory infections, it said. But the immediate challenge of distributing a flood of international aid to survivors living in the ruins is proving tough, with many Haitians complaining that it is coming too slowly.

Survivors also face rising insecurity, with thousands of criminals on the loose after the main jail collapsed in the quake and reports of rape and violence plaguing the weak and vulnerable.

The deputy head of the UN mission in Haiti, Anthony Banbury, said the UN did not want huge tent cities later turning into slums where there was poor sanitation, no security and child abuse.

The UN, along with aid agencies and security forces, must "do things smart, as well as fast, and that's a big challenge for us now," Mr Banbury said.

The US State Department said it was spearheading a coordinated effort together with Unicef, the Haitian government, the Red Cross and other agencies to combat the potential trafficking of children.

The aid effort has also been dogged by complaints over a lack of coordination between UN officials, the 20,000 US forces in Haiti, and a swarm of aid groups helping the country.

"Everyone is trying to help, but it's not as coordinated as it should be," said Lieutenant Colonel Bruce Ewing, commander of Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team.

Scott Lewis, the head of the US-based Eagles Wings Foundation relief group, said US troops were providing inadequate support to secure aid distribution efforts that draw massive crowds of desperate Haitians.

"Our approach is to flood the area (with aid), get it all out there," Mr Lewis said. "(US forces) told me, you're crazy, you'll get someone killed. But we haven't reported any injuries. I've been frustrated."

There were no signs of further survivors beneath the rubble after a 16-year-old girl was pulled alive from the ruins Wednesday after surviving 15 days without any food or water.

Russian rescue and medical teams were packing up and preparing to leave Haiti yesterday, although shipments of aid from Russia will continue to come in.