Foggy: A sapper uses a fogger to kill mosquitoes at the 1 CER HQ in Banda Aceh.

Photo by AB Jarrad Oliffe, HMAS Kanimbla

Curbing disease risk


By Cpl Cameron Jamieson

THE deadly tsunami that swept across the northwest coast of Aceh on Boxing Day has paved the way for a second deadly wave – disease.

Raw sewerage and contaminated water from the rice paddies have polluted many of the traditional sources of drinking water, creating the potential for an outbreak of water-borne disease.

There is also the possibility of vector-borne diseases, such as malaria and dengue fever, spreading among the weakened population.

To stop this from happening the Army quickly deployed environmental health soldiers as part of Op Sumatra Assist.

Maj Paul Byleveld, 8CSSB, said the Environmental Health Section at the Anzac Field Hospital in Banda Aceh had provided health support measures to both the ADF personnel and the local community.

“Our first priority is to make sure the facilities that Australian personnel are working and accommodated in are safe and clean,” he said.

“We take disease control measures to make sure that sanitation facilities are hygienic and that mosquitoes are being controlled.

We’re also working with displaced persons camps to look after the people there.”

Fellow reserve officer Capt Mick Kent said despite the difficult sanitation and hygiene conditions that existed when they arrived, they had been able to overcome the situation and help others.

“We’ve improved our location and managed to push out and do a fair bit with the displaced persons camps,” he said.

“The reaction of the local people has been fantastic.

They are very polite and appreciative of our help.

The people in the camps have been keen to be trained in mosquito control measures, as they understand the importance of public health and are particularly concerned about mosquitoborne diseases.”

One of the major public health victories in the weeks after the disaster was the lack of a disease outbreak.

Maj Byleveld attributed this in part to the swift implementation of public health measures, which included the provision of safe drinking water by Australian engineers.

“For disease outbreaks to occur you need people who are sick with a certain illness and you need the conditions for that illness to spread,” he said.

“It appears the community was in fairly good health before the tsunami and, early on, the engineers established a water point that distributed clean water to the community.

The combination of these has probably staved off disease outbreaks.”

The work of preventing disease outbreaks is continuing, especially in the camps.

“The people are being supplied with safe drinking water and proper sanitary facilities,” Maj Byleveld said.

“We are also providing mosquito control measures, as there are concerns that there will be an outbreak of either malaria or dengue fever because of the record of these outbreaks occurring in the past.

We are working with local public health authorities and the Indonesian military to prevent this from happening.”