The Yomiuri Shimbun
Medical support is desperately needed at the shelters in the quake zone as the threat of influenza and other infectious diseases grows.
Conditions appear to be worsening in the Tohoku region due to the lack of sufficient food, water, medicine and heating supplies. This is especially true in the shelters along the Pacific coast--including in the Kanto region--which was ravaged by the earthquake and ensuing tsunami last Friday.
There also has been growing concern about the victims' health in the difficult living environment. In fact, there have been reports of deaths caused by quake-induced shock and the stress of day-to-day life.
With the increasing danger of the flu and other infectious diseases that accompany cold weather--snow has been falling in many areas of Tohoku--it is more important than ever to provide the people in these shelters with the medical help they need.
Outside of Kasshi Primary School in Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture, where about 300 people have taken shelter, there are notices warning that people inside have contracted infectious diseases such as the flu or gastroenteritis. A list of evacuees is available, but people are forbidden from visiting the evacuees inside. One sign read, "Keep quiet: Sick children at rest."
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110317005057.htmDisaster takes toll at sheltersThe Yomiuri Shimbun
Fourteen elderly people evacuated from care facilities near the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant have died, it was learned Thursday.
The 14 people comprised eight women and six men from Futaba Hospital and the Doviru Futaba elderly care facility in Okumamachi, according to the Fukushima prefectural government's disaster countermeasures headquarters and other sources. All are believed to have been bedridden or suffering from other serious ailments.
On Wednesday, a woman in her 80s died from a heart attack after fleeing to an evacuation center set up in the gymnasium at Daiichi Middle School in Rikuzen-Takata, Iwate Prefecture. Hers was the first confirmed death of a person who had been taken to a shelter after the quake.
(Mar. 18, 2011)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110317004626.htmThe Asahi Evening News
Hospital patients, elderly die due to lack of medical services, cold, stresshttp://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201103170206.html
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