Ike creating public health disaster

HOUSTON, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- Medical officials in Texas treating patients for Hurricane Ike-related maladies or other ailments say the storm also created a near health disaster.

The Texas public health commission warned of a public health crisis if post-hurricane conditions persist for long, the USA Today.

The University of Texas Medical Branch, a major hospital and trauma center in hard-hit Galveston, is closed because of water and wind damage.

"We are getting slammed," says Jamie McCarthy, director of emergency medical services at Texas Medical Center's Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston. The facility averaged 130 patients a day before Ike. Since the storm, that number jumped 30 percent, McCarthy said.

"It's a public health emergency," says Jim Parisi, who oversees 10 emergency departments for Memorial Hermann Hospital System, the region's largest hospital group. "This is a huge disaster."

Now bacteria in the flood zone has had time to incubate, the Galveston hospital's president David Callender told USA Today.

"There is no running water, no sewage process, no natural gas to cook food, food is spoiled, there's all this debris," Callender said. "We're moving into a high-risk phase."