Indonesia’s Aceh grapples with disease after floods

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AJENG DINAR ULFIANA

Mud-covered intravenous fluid bottles lie scattered at the damaged Aceh Tamiang Regional Hospital after a deadly flash flood triggered by heavy rains in Karang Baru, Aceh Tamiang Regency, Aceh Province, Indonesia.

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AJENG DINAR ULFIANA

A mud-covered stretcher sits inside the damaged Aceh Tamiang Regional Hospital after a deadly flash flood triggered by heavy rains in Karang Baru, Aceh Province, Indonesia.

ACEH TAMIANG, Indonesia >> Hit by deadly floods, Indonesians in the region around Aceh Tamiang are grappling with worsening diseases and a lack of medical care as workers struggled to help dozens of residents at the lone hospital in the area.

Cyclone-induced floods and landslides last week devastated three provinces on Indonesia’s Sumatra island, including Aceh, killing at least 940 people, with an additional 276 people listed as missing, government data showed on Sunday.

As residents lost their homes to pools of mud and debris, diseases got worse. Diseases included diarrhoea, fever or myalgia, triggered because the “environment and places of stay have not recovered post-disaster,” Indonesia’s health ministry said last week.

At the only hospital in Aceh Tamiang, a patient and medical workers told Reuters on Sunday of worsening diseases there. Reuters’ witnesses said medical equipment was covered with mud, syringes were scattered on the floor and floods swept medicines away.

“These workers do not know what tired means,” said Ayu Wahyuni Putri, who gave birth to her child days before the floods hit.

Nurhayati, a 42-year-old nurse, said the hospital was nearly paralysed due to a lack of medicine. Workers tried to save ventilators at an intensive care unit for babies, but were unsuccessful as rising water covered them.

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A baby died, while six others survived, she said.

“People know me as a nurse. When I couldn’t do something, it felt devastating. I can only give the available medicine,” she said, hoping that the hospital would be reactivated. “This is an extraordinary disaster. Everything is destroyed.”

Ruined bridges made it nearly impossible for medical workers to go around Aceh, said Dr. Chik M. Iqbal, who traveled by boat to reach Aceh Tamiang, adding that emergency rooms would only be up and running on Monday.

Some 31 hospitals and 156 smaller health centres across the three provinces were impacted by the floods, the health ministry said on December 5.

On Sunday, President Prabowo Subianto visited Aceh, ordering authorities to fix bridges and dams, as well as cancel state-backed microloans for farmers.

Local government officials on Sumatra have called on the national government in Jakarta to declare a national emergency to free up additional funds for rescue-and-relief efforts.

See more:World news

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