By Michael Smith, Matthew Craze and Ivan Weissman March 6 (Bloomberg) — Chile is boosting efforts to fight disease in areas left without running water or sewer services for a seventh day after the Feb. 27 earthquake , and the government has revised its death-toll figures. Authorities are seeking to vaccinate some of the estimated 2 million victims of the earthquake for hepatitis, tetanus and flu. The government is dispatching 600,000 liters of disinfectant bleach to regions closest to the quake’s epicenter. The death toll will be lower than the last official estimate of about 800 people because that figure included those who were missing and presumed dead, Heraldo Munoz , Chile’s ambassador to the UN, told reporters. The Interior Ministry said 452 victims have been identified, in a statement e-mailed to Bloomberg. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon , in Santiago yesterday to meet with President Michelle Bachelet , pledged an initial $10 million toward health and sanitation programs. He is visiting Concepcion today, the country’s second-biggest city and one of two most devastated by the quake. Chile is asking other governments and non-government organizations for help in coping with health issues, Bachelet said. “We have been told by the Chilean government that they have enough resources to deal with the food, water and power problems,” Ban said. “From what we have learned at the meetings, the more pressing concerns are housing and health.” Supplies, Field Hospitals Food and basic supplies have reached most areas hit by the 8.8-magnitude quake, the world’s fifth strongest in the past century, and ensuing tsunami waves, while 13 field hospitals have been set up, according to the Interior Ministry’s Web site. Munoz put the quake’s cost to Chile at $30 billion, including $280 million in the agriculture and wine industries. A charity telethon is under way with the aim of raising about $30 billion for relief. If successful, that would amount to about 0.02 percent of gross domestic product in 2009. Water supplies are being re-established gradually in the affected areas, although taps are still dry in some of the hardest-hit towns in the Maule and Bio Bio regions. Electric power, mostly restored elsewhere, remains spotty in those two areas, the Interior Ministry said. Garbage Piles In Constitucion, 300 kilometers (190 miles) south of Santiago, the sanitation problems are pervasive. Human excrement sits in dark corners by destroyed buildings, and people relieve themselves in vacant lots and backyards among piles of rubble. Dogs roam the streets rummaging for food in heaps of garbage that aren’t being collected. Nearby, people cook meals over open fires near their destroyed homes. So far, there haven’t been any outbreaks of diseases tied to sanitary conditions in the city, Laura Albornoz , the central government’s disaster relief representative, said from Constitucion’s city hall. Health workers will begin vaccinating children soon, seeking to avert outbreaks of hepatitis, which can be contracted by drinking contaminated water. “Children are the most vulnerable to this disease,” Albornoz said. “So that’s our first priority.” The UN is delivering to Chile 120 tons of fortified snacks, 11,000 bottles of water, 34,700 doses of chlorine, 170,000 hepatitis A vaccines and 70,000 vaccines for tetanus. Modular Hospitals The government is seeking donations of semi-permanent modular hospitals, similar to one used after the 1960 earthquake in Valdivia and was in place until 2000, Bachelet said. The government also is considering broadening a flu- vaccination campaign that’s due to begin March 15, to inoculate more people. “We may extend coverage to people over 65 years old, considering they will be living in bad conditions,” she said. Other services in the country are returning to normal. Finance Minister Andres Velasco told reporters in Santiago yesterday that 82 percent of all automatic teller machines are operational, with 52 percent working in the Maule region and 28 percent in Bio Bio. Banco del Estado de Chile, a state-owned lender, is sending mobile ATMs to two of the most affected cities in Bio Bio, he said. Lan Airlines SA increased the capacity of its domestic and international flights to and from Santiago’s airport to 54 percent of normal levels, Latin America’s biggest airline by market value wrote in a statement. “The earthquake will have a negative effect on economic activity in Chile in March and upcoming months,” Velasco said. “Private and public investment in the second half of the year will surely serve to increase demand and in the medium term will boost the economy.” To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Smith in Constitucion at mssmith@bloomberg.net ; Matthew Craze in Concepcion at mcraze@bloomberg.net .
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Chile Steps Up Efforts to Fight Disease as Sanitation Suffers After Quake
