1:21pm UK, Saturday January 30, 2010

Alison Chung,
Sky News Online

Haiti’s earthquake survivors are facing a new deadly threat as the United Nations warned of a rise in potentially fatal diseases such as tetanus, measles and diarrhoea.

Haiti will need at least a decade of painstaking reconstruction, the UN says

UN agencies and the Haitian government are preparing a mass vaccination drive to try to halt the spread of disease in squalid refugee camps housing survivors.

The immunisation campaign will start next week, World Health Organisation spokesman Paul Garwood confirmed.

“Several medical teams report a growing caseload of diarrhoea in the last two to three days,” he said.

“There are also reports of measles and tetanus, including in resettlement camps, which is worrisome due to the high concentration of people.”

Mr Garwood said just 58% of Haitian infants were immunised before the quake.

He also highlighted a “critical” need for surgeons, with an estimated 30 to 100 amputations being carried out every day in some hospitals, while supplies of anesthetics and antibiotics were also needed.

More than two weeks after the 7.0-magnitude quake, which killed up to 200,000 people, the massive international aid effort is still struggling to meet survivors’ needs.

Haitians living in makeshift camps in the ruins of Port-au-Prince and elsewhere complain that the flood of aid arriving in the country is trickling down too slowly.

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 aid groups helping the country.

In a further blow, the US military has reportedly suspended medical evacuations of injured Haitians until a row over who will pay for their care is settled.

Citing unnamed military officials, The New York Times said the flights ended on Wednesday after Florida Governor Charlie Crist formally asked the federal government to shoulder some of the cost of the care.

Meanwhile, Port-au-Prince‘s iconic iron market, built in 1889, was ravaged by fire on Friday and left to burn for hours by overstretched firefighters.

As the blaze tore through the market, looters swarmed in over the rubble and carried off pieces of metal and wood.

There have been no signs of further survivors being rescued after a 16-year-old girl was pulled alive from the ruins on Wednesday after surviving 15 days without food.

The acting head of the UN mission in Haiti also warned the rebuilding of the western hemisphere’s poorest nation could take decades.

“I think this is going to take many more decades than only 10 years and this is an enormous backwards step in Haiti’s development. We will not have to start from zero but from below zero,” Edmond Mulet said.