14 DAY TRIAL // As officials insure that the situation is more under control, for constant medical aid reaches Katrina's victims, an official in Mayor Ray Nagin Office told CNN that floodwater in the battered city was contaminated with potentially deadly E. coli bacteria. He declined to be identified though.
E. coli comes from human and animal waste and can be found in untreated sewage. If water and food is contaminated with the germ, serious illness or even death can result without proper treatment.
However, a spokesman for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday afternoon that the agency had not received confirmation of reports that E. coli was in the New Orleans water. "The assessment teams that are there are certainly looking into that as well as other things that could be contaminating the water," said the CDC's Von Roebuck. "Information as to what contaminants are in the water has yet to come forward."
Apparently, the major public health challenge at this point is to prevent and manage outbreaks of infectious diseases along the entire Gulf Coast, as conditions are ripe at crowded shelters for the spread of infectious disease.
Reports of diarrheal illness are under "active investigation," CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding, who has also been touring the affected areas, said at the teleconference; noroviruses, like those that plague cruise ships, are also a big concern. "They are so easily transmitted. It almost requires perfection in personal hygiene to be completely safe," Gerberding said. And it's obvious there are no such conditions in the affected areas.
Plus there are many people who have already been diagnosed with tuberculosis are being provided with medication, while potential new cases are being investigated and "appropriate containment steps taken," she said.
Health-care workers are also making sure that routine childhood immunizations are up-to-date, especially given that "many of the people in shelters are those that already experience health disparities," Gerberding said. For adults, workers are focusing on tetanus and, when it becomes available, flu shots.
Furthermore, there's the additional challenge of maintaining chronic-care services for people who had pre-existing conditions and, Gerberding said, "to provide a sense of hope."
Over the long-term, survivors of the hurricane will need continued medical support, as well as mental health support, education, housing and job training, she said.