Healthcare professionals combat myths in Venezuela disaster zone

Written by Stephanie Kriner, Staff Writer, DisasterRelief.org
Concerns about disease have resurfaced along with the bodies of mudslide victims that recently washed up on Venezuela's Caribbean beaches. But authorities insist that the carcasses, swept into the sea during the floods that ravaged Venezuela's northern coastline, pose little threat to human health. "It's shocking, it's painful that there are bodies floating in the sea, but this does not per se represent an epidemic risk," Health Minister Gilberto Rodriguez said.

Rather than worrying about potential risks from decomposing bodies, local hospitals and medical crews are concerned about treating the numerous cases of diarrhea, respiratory problems and skin infections, such as scabies and impetigo, that they encounter every day.

A mudslide survivor in a Red Cross hospital in Caracas, Venezuela, shows wounds he suffered during the recent disaster. Even the now-putrid bodies buried in rubble pose no serious health risk unless they pollute the drinking water, experts said.

"Decomposing bodies do not pose a real danger," said Alvaro Requena, a doctor with the Venezuelan Red Cross (VRC). "The real danger is where people are crowded into shelters or where they don't have access to clean water."

Despite popular belief, epidemics rarely occur in the aftermath of a disaster, according to Jean-Luc Poncelet, a doctor with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). An epidemic is an outbreak of a disease that affects a much greater number of people than is usual for the locality or that spreads to regions where it is ordinarily not present. A PAHO team monitoring the situation in Venezuela recently discovered two cases of cholera, but that's not enough to cause a scare, Poncelet added.

More common are cases of gastro-intestinal illness (possibly caused by drinking dirty floodwater), respiratory problems (from breathing air that's contaminated with dust particles), or skin infections (from wading in murky floodwaters or being exposed to unsanitary conditions), said Juan Carlos Leoni, a Venezuela Red Cross (VRC) medical intern treating disaster patients. Mudslide survivors fleeing the disaster zone have also arrived at the tiny Caracas hospital where Leoni works with swollen and infected feet after walking barefoot for days over sharp debris and through grimy floodwaters.

Despite assurances that an epidemic is unlikely, authorities still take extra precautions to limit illnesses following a disaster. Mass vaccinations are not planned in Venezuela, but special brigades have fanned out across Vargas, the worst-hit area of the Dec. 15 mudslides, to kill disease-carrying rats. There also are plans to spray insecticides to kill mosquitoes or other insects that carry disease. "We're going to declare a national alert because the possibilities of epidemic outbreaks are more present than ever," Rodriguez said.

Despite the massive death toll, authorities say that decomposing bodies are not likely to spark an epidemic in Venezuela.

The lack of potable water coupled with unsanitary conditions that normally follow a major disaster pose the greatest health concerns for doctors. Thousands of people in Venezuela are still without drinking water, according to a PAHO report. The Red Cross and other donors are quickly supplying clean water to the disaster area, but it has still not reached everyone. "We're on our own here," one survivor, Jaime Salazar, told the Associated Press. To conserve precious water, he and other survivors drank the milk of coconuts scattered among the debris.

Health officials also are monitoring shelters, where cramped living conditions could lead to the rapid spread of infections. In one case, Leoni noticed that several children at one shelter were scratching - a clue that scabies had begun to spread throughout the tight quarters.

By monitoring such cases and educating people about how to avoid maladies, relief and government workers in Venezuela have limited more serious outbreaks, they say. Authorities in Venezuela have dropped pamphlets from helicopters urging people to drink only bottled water or water that has been boiled for 20 minutes.

Sick and injured disaster victims have overcrowded Venezuela hospitals. Red Cross medical teams, made up of doctors, nurses and counselors, are going out into the worst hit areas - not only to treat the injured and sick, but also to monitor for disease outbreaks and to pass out disease prevention information.
But delivering the right message can be difficult when misinformed media outlets create confusion about the possibility of health threats, Poncelet said. "We have to work more on the prevention side and not alarm people about something that is not occurring."

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