Post-quake disease threat grows

PAPUA NEW GUINEA – The official death toll following Papua New Guinea’s 7.5 magnitude earthquake has risen to 145 but still has further to climb, officials have said.

Almost three weeks after the earthquake struck the provinces of Hela and Southern Highlands, some places remain cut off and an estimated 35,000 people have been displaced, the PNG police force said on Wednesday.

“From the reports received at the command centres in Tari and Mendi, 45 have died so far in the Southern Highlands province and in Hela 80 people are confirmed dead,” a spokesman said.

“It is expected that the figure might increase once all people have been accounted for.”

About 270,000 people, including 125,000 children, require urgent humanitarian assistance, Unicef has said.

Aftershocks are continuing in some areas and people will not return to their homes and mountainside crops for fear of further landslides, according to NGOs on the ground.

“We’re still getting aftershocks – we had one last night,” said Andreas Wuestenberg from the village of Pimiga, where people had moved to an emergency camp.

“Food stocks are rapidly depleting. We’re not yet seeing a high increase in malnutrition in children but we’re expecting that will rise quite quickly.

“One of the main concerns is also the spread of disease, especially in this makeshift camp.”

Unicef, which launched an emergency appeal on Thursday, is providing humanitarian and medical assistance, including vaccinations and establishing safe spaces for women and children.

“We don’t have any statistics, and information is vary scarce,” he said. “But in situations like this when there is a lot of stress, there is often an increase in violence.”

Residents of villages near the Tagari and Heggio rivers have been also warned to move to higher ground in case temporary dams created by landslides burst.

“These are called earthquake dams and the biggest danger is downstream where the water has stopped flowing,” Brian Ward, from the Mission Aviation Fellowship, which has been running relief flights in the area, said. “The dams could break at any time causing a powerful flood downstream.”

Frances Devlin, a Mt Hagen-based health delegate with the International Committee for the Red Cross, said her main concerns now were about access to clean water, and mental health.

“Traditional sources of water have been interrupted,” she said. “If water is dirty or muddy people are at risk of diarrhoeal diseases.”

“A lot of the population are very scared. They’re scared to go to their houses, they’re scared to go and get food, they’re scared to go and get water.” - PNC