14 Oct 2010

People displaced by flooding in West Papua battle illnesses

11:12 am on 14 October 2010

Illness is now taking hold of a number of people evacuated from Wasior, Indonesia's West Papua, following devastating flooding in the area.

Nearly 150 people died in the flooding and 103 others are still missing.

More than 4-thousand people either left or were evacuated out of Wasior to a number of places nearby.

A local doctor in nearby Manokwari says some evacuees there have been struck by acute respiratory tract infection, diarrhoea, skin disorders and malaria.

He says some people have now been hospitalised.

He says health problems have struck people because of the conditions in the places where they fled to, the lack of water and medicines.

The doctor says some people have found conditions where they are unbearable and have decided to return to their original homes in Sulawesi and Java.

Meanwhile, the head of the Indonesian Red Cross in Wasior says they are still searching for bodies.