Flood-ravaged Philippine capital on alert for disease

PHILIPPINEs: Philippine health authorities warned Monday of disease outbreaks following horror floods, as filthy water covered large areas of Manila and bodies lay in coffins next to survivors at evacuation centres.

More than 115,000 people were dangerously crammed into makeshift centres such as schools and open-air gymnasiums across Manila, the nation's capital, and surrounding areas that were submerged in Saturday's floods.

Infections including swine flu, diarrhoea and the bacterial disease leptospirosis were at the top of the government's list of concerns, Doctor Melissa Guerrero, chief aide to the health secretary, told AFP.

"Now that you have a breakdown in your water and sanitation facilities and evacuation sites, the transmission of diseases will be faster," Guerrero said.

Stagnant water could also become breeding grounds for mosquitoes that spread dengue fever, she warned.

Saturday's disaster saw tropical storm Ketsana drop the heaviest rain in more than 40 years on Manila and neighbouring areas of Luzon island.

The nine-hour pounding left some areas of Metro Manila, a city of 12 million people, under six metres (20 feet) of water and many areas remained submerged on Monday.

The government said the death toll was at least 100 and more than 450,000 other people had been displaced.

Sanitation conditions at schools, gymnasiums and other buildings that had been turned into evacuation centres were deplorable, AFP reporters at the scene observed.

In one makeshift evacuation centre in a riverside Manila village that was inundated by the floods, about 3,000 people crowded in an open-air gymnasium, cooking and sleeping on the cold concrete floor as human faeces lay nearby.

In warm, muggy conditions, 11 bodies were kept inside coffins at the same centre, with homeless survivors resting on the concrete.

Manila, Monday, AFP