Flooded Texas faces higher risk of disease

Bacteria, viruses could contaminate water

MIAMI, Aug 29, (Agencies): Sewage-laden floodwaters dumped on Texas by Hurricane Harvey bring a higher risk of disease, such as bacterial infections and mosquito-borne illnesses, and the fallout may linger for years, experts warn.

Immediate risks from floods include death by drowning — often people drown in their cars as they try to flee — electrocution, and hypothermia.

The long-term picture could be even more dire, as communities grapple with immense amounts of polluted water in the streets, in homes and businesses.

When floodwater washes over a heavily populated metro area like Houston, it is sure to be dirty and dangerous, experts say.

“There is sewage, all kinds of pesticide, waste, herbicides and toxins that we don’t even know of — are all going to wash in,” Ranit Mishori, a family doctor and a professor at Georgetown University School of Medicine.

“We are talking hundreds of different types of bacteria and viruses that could contaminate that water,” she added.

People can get sick simply by wading through dirty floodwater with a scratch or an open wound.

“The biggest issue is the release of sewage and bacterial-related infections,” said Howard Selinger, chair of family medicine at the Frank H. Netter MD School at Quinnipiac University.

Dirty water can also infiltrate the drinking water system, raising the risk of contaminated water and with it, cholera.

Cholera causes acute diarrhea, causing some three to five million cases of illness and more than 100,000 deaths each year worldwide.

“The spread of cholera is one of the most significant dangers following any natural disaster, but especially flooding after a hurricane,” said Robert Glatter, an emergency physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York.

“Cholera is quite contagious, and can be transmitted person to person by infected feces after dirty water is swallowed, or from contaminated food with vibrio cholera bacteria.”

Cholera is rare in the United States and other industrialized nations, but has been on the rise worldwide over the past decade, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Studies of multiple floods worldwide have shown a spike in the incidence of a disease called Leptospirosis, which is caused by caused by rodent, pig and horse urine, and can be fatal.

The bacteria can enter the body through the skin, mucous membranes, or by drinking water.

Symptoms occur within two days to four weeks, and may start off as flu-like, with fever, vomiting, chills and diarrhea. Some people get progressively sicker, and may have liver and kidney failure along with meningitis.

Meanwhile, the muddy floodwaters now soaking through drywall, carpeting, mattresses and furniture in Houston will pose a massive cleanup challenge with potential public health consequences.

It’s not known yet what kinds or how much sewage, chemicals and waterborne germs are mixed in the water. For now, health officials are more concerned about drownings, carbon monoxide poisoning from generators and hygiene at shelters. In the months and years to come, their worries will turn to the effects of trauma from Hurricane Harvey on mental health.

At a shelter set up inside Houston’s George R. Brown Convention Center, Dr David Persse is building a clinic of doctors and nurses and trying to prevent the spread of viruses or having to send people to hospitals already stretched thin.

“This is rapidly evolving,” said Persse, Houston Director of Emergency Medical Services. “I always worry in these large congregations of people about viral outbreaks that cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. And we are just getting started.”

Medics have been at the convention center since it started taking in evacuees, along with police and other first responders. Over the last 24 hours, doctors and nurses arrived at the convention center to volunteer.

Fewer than 20 people have been hospitalized so far from the convention center.

“One of our goals is to appropriately treat people here with minor things so we don’t send everybody off to the hospital,” Persse.