Over 2,470 out of 30,052 evacuees from rumbling Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra have suffered from various illnesses, including throat inflammation, diarrhea and eye irritation, after being temporarily accommodated at local evacuation centers.
"The illnesses are possibly caused by cold temperature and thick ashes in villages where the evacuees are temporarily accommodated," head of Karo regency health office Diana Elita Ginting said on Monday as quoted by kompas.com.
Two of the them were rushed to a nearby hospital because of blood vomiting and high fever, Diana said, adding that her office had deployed several groups of medical personnel at each evacuation center with each group consisting of four doctors and four medical officers.
Mount Sinabung, which had been dormant for more than four centuries, erupted for the second day in a row Monday, spewing white clouds of smoke and ash more than 2,000 yards (meters) into the air.
Thousands of people living along the slopes of the mount have been evacuated to emergency shelters, mosques and churches.
An evacuation coordinator at Rumah Berastagi village, Naksir Purba, 51, said that the quick spread of the illnesses was caused by the unhealthy condition of the environment where the evacuees lived.
In general the evacuation centers were mostly dirty as the evacuees easily littered anywhere, including throwing garbages into the gutters, Naksir said. The condition was worsened by difficulties to get clean water, he added.