US health officials are shifting their focus from trauma care to public health and infectious disease as concerns grow about polluted standing water in the flooded streets of New Orleans.
Houses in New Orleans remain surrounded by floodwaters
So far, however, physicians say infectious outbreaks have not occurred and may not be widespread thanks to an immunised public and historical trends. But they caution the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina could turn out different because the water may remain in the city for a very long time.
At the cavernous basketball arena-turned-field hospital at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, only a handful of patients remained in what had been a full 300-bed facility less than a week before. Combined with 500 beds at the neighboring field house, the complex is the largest functioning hospital in Louisiana, officials said.
The LSU-based medical facility processed 50,000 patients and admitted more than 5,000, according to preliminary estimates. The facility is expected to shut down in a day or two.
On Monday, hospital officials opened an isolation unit after cases of diarrhea were reported, but did not know yet if the outbreak was caused by Katrina or a food-borne source. So far, diarrhea and infected wounds are the major categories of ailment.
"We're preparing ourselves for gastrointestinal diseases. It is inevitable that it's going to happen," said Dr. Bernard Heilicser, a physician with the Illinois Medical Emergency Response Team, whose group set up the complex at LSU.
Experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta were en route to New Orleans on Tuesday to begin assessing the environmental and infectious disease risks. Meanwhile, emergency workers heading into New Orleans are being vaccinated against tetanus and hepatitis B as a precaution.