Tsunami-hit area faces health catastrophe

Even as world leaders gathered today to co-ordinate billions of dollars in aid, doctors warned of a looming catastrophe from ever-more serious health woes - gangrenous wounds that require limb amputations, scores of children with diarrhea, pneumonia caused by exposure to dirty water.

The World Health Organisation said that if basic needs – particularly access to safe drinking water – are not restored by the end of this week, there would be a risk of infectious disease outbreaks that could kill 150,000 people – as many as the tsunami’s direct impact.