Chaos surrounds efforts to get medical help to hurricane refugees

[ray of light]

BATON ROUGE, La. -- Volunteer physicians are pouring in to care for the sick, but red tape is keeping hundreds of others from caring for Hurricane Katrina survivors even as health officials worry about potential outbreaks.

Among the doctors stymied from helping out are 100 surgeons and paramedics in a state-of-the-art mobile hospital marooned in rural Mississippi.

"We have tried so hard to do the right thing. It took us 30 hours to get here," said one of the frustrated surgeons, Dr. Preston "Chip" Rich of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. That government officials can't straighten out the mess and get them assigned to a relief effort now that they're just a few miles away "is just mind-boggling," he said in a phone interview.

While the North Carolina doctors waited Sunday, the first predictable signs of disease from contaminated water emerged on Saturday: A Mississippi shelter was closed after 20 residents got sick with dysentery, probably from drinking contaminated water.

http://www.wcnc.com/news/local/stories/wcnc-090505-al-med_one.29cb178b.html

[randr]

1. Exactly what government offices are being obstructive?

[Sabriel]

2. Whatever happened to that initial report of a cholera case?

I never heard another thing about it. Huh.

[Moderator]

3. Duplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1753013