Doctors fear a second disaster may follow Katrina Hurricane

Doctors in New Orleans are bracing themselves for what they call a “second disaster” as New Orleans-area residents return to their devastated city.

While environmentalists warn of the long-term danger to health from possibly polluted floodwaters, and rumors of disease swirl, front-line emergency doctors say the actual health danger will come from accidents.

“The second wave of disaster is when you welcome the people back and the infrastructure of the city is not in place,” said Dr. Peter Deblieux, an emergency room doctor at downtown New Orleans’ Charity Hospital.

After Hurricane Charley hit Florida in 2004, 77 percent of the deaths blamed on the hurricane were classified as unintentional injury. Dr. Deblieux is concerned about plans to allow more than 180,000 people to return to New Orleans with only four area hospitals up and running, and only one of those in New Orleans proper.

“Where will people get treatment?” asked Deblieux. Some areas will continue to lack electricity and clean drinking water.

“If you bring significant amounts of people into New Orleans, you need an evacuation plan on how you’re going to do that,” he told CNN on Sunday.

While some areas have uncontaminated water, 90 percent of the population does not, the CDC said on Saturday. Tom Clark, an infectious disease specialist at the CDC. There are heavy metals and oil products such as diesel fuel in the water - but not huge amounts.

And as the mud dries, some compounds, especially metals such as lead and arsenic, will remain in the dirt. “E.coli in general are normal flora of the gastrointestinal tracts of people and animals,” Clark said.

Some are toxic - such as the E. coli 0157 strain that can cause deadly food poisoning, especially in children. coli being measured in city water is not in itself especially harmful but rather means the water is contaminated.

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