GIZO, Solomon Islands – Villagers buried their dead where they found them – including two young boys found in one shattered community – and the first cases of dysentery were reported today among survivors of the Solomon Islands’ earthquake and tsunami.
Susie Chippendale, communications manager for the Red Cross operation, said a small number of dysentery cases had been reported in addition to the diarrhea that has broken out in makeshift camps where at least 2,000 people are living near the hardest-hit town of Gizo.
“It seems pretty under control at this stage and hopefully there won’t be a huge outbreak,” she said.
Frustration was growing among survivors that the relief effort has been chaotic and slow, and officials in the impoverished nation’s capital of Honiara conceded it was taking longer than expected to crank up to full speed. The reports of dysentery added urgency to the relief efforts.
Chippendale said the aid operation had sped up considerably since Gizo’s airport opened on Thursday, allowing military transport planes from New Zealand and Australia to land with aid packages of tarps, water and food rations. More supplies arrived in the town of Munda, a three-hour boat ride away.
Four Red Cross boats laden with medical supplies and shelter were heading out of Gizo early today toward outlying villages where little aid has been delivered.
On Thursday, the United Nations released its first estimates of the human toll from the disaster, saying about 50,000 people had been affected, including 30,000 children who are “highly vulnerable” to malaria due to inadequate medical supplies and unsanitary conditions.
The U.N. also put the death toll from Monday’s 8.1-magnitude quake and tsunami at 34 people – higher than the government’s tally of 28, although officials have said that is likely to rise.
More than three days after the disaster, there was still no official tally of the missing. Conditions remained unknown at dozens of villages along the battered coastal region.
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