Link to site: A bit of good news: The Gulf Coast hasn't seen epidemics of disease.

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Highlights:
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Public Health Service and Environmental Protection Agency, rushed experts to the region. They apparently did better coordinating with state and local colleagues than did the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
- Six people died from bacterial infections associated with floodwaters, 30 people got staph infections, rescue workers suffered serious skin infections from floodwater exposure, one infant got whooping cough and many evacuees contracted a digestive illness.
- it's time to pause and tell the public health agencies: Good job.


The ruckus over what went wrong after Hurricane Katrina has overshadowed a bit of good news: The Gulf Coast hasn't seen epidemics of disease.

After the monster storm, conditions in New Orleans were ripe for infectious illnesses spawned by floodwaters, broken sewers and polluted drinking water. Cholera and typhoid only topped a long list of potential horrors. For a time, the floodwaters held E. coli bacteria levels 10 times what's considered safe.

Federal agencies, led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Public Health Service and Environmental Protection Agency, rushed experts to the region. They apparently did better coordinating with state and local colleagues than did the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

A key concern was that rescue workers and residents who couldn't leave were at risk from exposure to floodwaters and disease-carrying insects. Some 200,000 evacuees also were sent to 750 shelters in 18 states, creating opportunities for diseases to spread. Health workers were particularly keen on finding tuberculosis patients and ensuring that they got proper medicines.

In an interview with Voice of America, CDC chief Julie Gerberding compared the post-Katrina public health response to international efforts launched after the Indian Ocean tsunami. Health professionals "got in early, they set up the systems to try to prevent these infectious diseases and ultimately were remarkably successful," she explained. "That's what we're trying to do here in this country in the context of the shelters and certainly in the city of New Orleans."

The post-Katrina record so far: Six people died from bacterial infections associated with floodwaters, 30 people got staph infections, rescue workers suffered serious skin infections from floodwater exposure, one infant got whooping cough and many evacuees contracted a digestive illness.

That toll is orders of magnitude less than it might have been. There were fears the public might be exposed to dangerous disease if Katrina damaged biological research labs in the area, but that didn't happen. (Voters might ask why such labs are allowed in a city so vulnerable to natural disasters.)

Health agencies can't relax, as diseases that take time to enter human populations, like West Nile virus, could yet appear. Many New Orleans homes now have mold, which has been linked to several ailments. Experts are studying what toxic chemicals got into the water or soil.

Nevertheless, it's time to pause and tell the public health agencies: Good job.