Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt says a task force led by medical and environmental authorties are working to monitor for disease outbreaks, and will decide when New Orleans is safe to re-inhabit.
So far, there have been scattered reports of diarrheal diseases in shelters housing evacuees from New Orleans and coastal Mississippi. Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says it is not clear if these diseases were spread in shelters or whether evacuees already arrived ill.
Gerbering stresses E. coli bacteria and diarrhea-causing viruses are more likely responsible for these outbreaks, and not exposure to dead bodies or cholera, as has been rumored in the last few days.
Her biggest concern is not knowing whether the culprit is the water, which may contain toxic chemicals.
Environmental specialists will work with public health officials to determine, and address, whether chemical and petroleum factories in the region survived without damage that could have led to contamination.
