Malaria threat emerges in tsunami-ravaged region

Banda Aceh, Indonesia ? Health officials plan to go door to door and tent to tent with mosquito-killing spray guns beginning today to head off a looming threat that one expert says could kill 100,000 more people around the tsunami disaster zone: malaria.

The devastation and heavy rains are creating conditions for the largest area of mosquito breeding sites Indonesia has ever seen, said the head of the aid group anchoring the anti-malaria campaign on Sumatra island. The pools of salt water created by the Dec. 26 tsunami have been diluted by seasonal rains into a brackish water that mosquitoes love.

A refugee covers his face as a volunteer fumigates a refugee camp in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Experts say the danger of malaria and dengue fever epidemics is climbing among tsunami survivors.

While the threat of cholera and dysentery outbreaks is diminishing by the day because clean water is increasingly getting to tsunami survivors, the danger of malaria and dengue fever epidemics is increasing, said Richard Allan, director of the Mentor Initiative, a public health group that fights malaria epidemics.

The death toll has topped 157,000 across 11 countries after Indonesia added nearly 4,000 more to its tally. Allan warned that an outbreak of malaria could take an additional 100,000 lives around the Indian Ocean if authorities don’t act quickly.

Asked about World Health Organization warnings that disease could double the tsunami death toll across affected areas, Allan said: “If anything, I think they are being conservative. Three-quarters of those deaths could be from malaria.”

The World Health Organization said Thursday that seven cases of malaria had been confirmed in Aceh province.

By Colum LynchThe Washington PostUnited Nations — In the three weeks since the Indian Ocean tsunami ripped up coastlines in Asia and Africa, the United Nations has credited more than 40 governments, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank with unprecedented pledges of assistance valued at nearly $4 billion.But a closer look at those commitments shows that hundreds of millions of dollars in those pledges already had been committed to development projects in the region. And as much as half of the offers are for interest-free loans, which the United Nations traditionally does not count as humanitarian aid.Over the past two years, the United Nations has faced a shortfall of $3 billion in funding for relief operations and for rebuilding countries devastated by civil conflicts or natural disasters.