Quake aid 'not enough' as disease kills survivors

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan, Friday (AFP) - Relief officials warned that world aid pledges for Pakistan's quake may be too late to save lives, while doctors said 22 people had already died of tetanus and one of measles.

Donors at an emergency United Nations conference Wednesday promised an additional 580 million dollars amid a life or death race to deliver help to tens of thousands of injured or homeless people before winter.

British aid agency Oxfam said much of the funding in the pipeline was coming "too little, too late", with only three weeks of good weather left to get tents, blankets and food into the devastated region.

"It appears that almost half of the money pledged is for longer-term reconstruction work which, although vital, won't save a single one of the thousands of lives currently hanging in the balance," it said in a statement.

The UN said it was still unclear which pledges were meant for its half-billion-dollar "flash appeal" for aid over the next half-year, and which were for later rebuilding.

"We must assess the human cost when deciding whether that money is spent now or in six months' time," the UN's humanitarian coordinator in Pakistan, Jan Vandemoortele, said in a statement.

"The winter is coming and we must save babies from diarrhoeal disease, keep mothers and grandmothers warm, and avoid unnecessary amputations where people are still waiting for assistance."

The UN's spokeswoman in Pakistan, Amanda Pitt, said the world body was grateful for the pledges but added: "We don't want to see this second wave of deaths that we have kept warning about."

"The money pledged at the donors conference is no way near enough. It is just pie in the sky if we see the scale of devastation," added Moeed Yousaf, relief consultant at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute.

Almost three weeks after the disaster, rescuers travelling in helicopters and on mule trains are still struggling to reach some remote mountain villages to bring vital aid and evacuate casualties.

The World Health Organisation said 22 quake victims had died from tetanus and 111 cases had been reported overall since the earthquake.

"We have had 22 deaths from tetanus over the past several days," WHO's country head Rachel Lavy told AFP.

She said the deaths from tetanus were not surprising because quake injuries were often dirty and it could take several days for the wounded to get medical attention.

WHO communications officer Sacha Bootsma added that one person had died of measles in the quake zone, while a total of 30 cases of the highly infectious disease had been reported.

The WHO is vaccinating thousands of children in the quake zone against measles and giving tetanus vaccine to pregnant women and youngsters.