Diarrhea outbreaks in quake-hit areas
Bureau Report

MUZAFFARABAD—Several hundred survivors of Oct 8 earthquake have come down with acute diarrhea at a makeshift tent in camps, a World Health Organization official said Wednesday.
Health workers said unsanitary condition in the camp in Muzaffarabad, which sprang up after the quake, had likely caused the outbreak. The workers were urgently giving rehydration salts and intravenous drips to the sick.
Meanwhile, Pakistan and India opened a second crossing at their disputed Kashmir frontier to exchange quake aid, but did not go forward with much-awaited plans to let residents of the divided territory cross to reunite with long-separated relatives.
In Muzaffarabad, an ethnic-based group that set up a relief camp pulled out of the city following a clash between its supporters and a rival Islamic group that left two people injured, police said.
The 7.6-magnituge quake — which killed an estimated 87,350 people — also destroyed homes of more than 3 million across northwestern Pakistan and its portion of Kashmir. Many survivors have moved into tent camps in the Himalayan foothills. Some 1,350 of the deaths were in Indian territory.
Aid officials have warned that coming cold weather and squalid camp conditions could bring a new wave of deaths, and the United Nations has launched urgent appeals for more money.
The diarrhea outbreak occurred at a camp housing about 3,000 people that cropped up spontaneously near a demolished university campus in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-held Kashmir, said Khalid Shibib, WHO’s team leader in the city.
Health workers said the situation began to deteriorate over the past week and cases of acute diarrhea had rocketed. On Monday alone, the camp clinic treated 170 cases of dysentery, he said.
International relief organizations were opening a treatment center to rehydrate diarrhea sufferers, digging new latrines and improving the water supply, said Shibib, adding that the outbreak appeared to be under control.
Acute diarrhea can be caused by many forms of bacteria or viruses that can spread in contaminated water, and can be lead to dangerous levels of dehydration.
It also can indicate more serious illnesses such as cholera. However, Shibib said there was no immediate evidence of a cholera outbreak.
Wednesday’s frontier exchange between Pakistan and India was the second since the nuclear-armed rivals agreed, in the wake of the quake, to open an unprecedented five crossings through their heavily guarded frontier to ease aid efforts.
Officials at the Chakothi-Uri crossing exchanged aid across a dry river bed — hundreds of bags of rice from the Indian side, and several dozen bags of blankets and clothing from the Pakistani side.