That was just one of the many challenges facing those who survived the catastrophe as aid officials sized up the potential for a disease-borne disaster.
"Drinking water for millions [has] been polluted," said Egeland, the U.N. official. "Disease will be a result of that, and also acute respiratory disease always comes in the wake of disasters."
At Colombo's airport, medical teams poured in from around the world. A group of 20 Japanese doctors and nurses arrived late Monday; a team of six Israelis was on the same plane.
One of the Israelis, Dan Engelhard, a pediatrician and infectious-disease expert at Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem, said treating the wounded would probably be a first priority, followed by the prevention of infectious disease.
"Epidemics are a real concern," he said. "In Rwanda, we had cholera. In Cambodia, in 1979, we had meningitis. Measles can strike, killing infants. Every disaster is different, so you have to assess the situation."
Foreign doctors in war-torn Sri Lanka said they were willing to go to the northern rebel-held areas under the control of the Tamil Tigers to help victims in that area, but would only do so if asked by the Sri Lankan government. The Tigers' official website said that more than 2,000 people in the Tamil-controlled north were killed by the tsunami.
The U.S. announced plans to give about $15 million in emergency humanitarian aid to the stricken Asian countries, officials said. U.S. ambassadors in Sri Lanka, the Maldives, India and Indonesia provided a total of $400,000 in immediate emergency aid to their host nations, and the U.S. will provide $4.5 million to the Red Cross and Red Crescent, which issued a worldwide call for $6.5 million, officials said.
A U.S. official in Bangkok, Thailand, who asked not to be quoted by name, said that the U.S. military was considering sending a forensics lab to the region to help identify victims.
"People are being found washed up in swimsuits. Their bodies are battered; they have no IDs. Identification is going to be a real challenge," he said.
The disaster also led to calls for a tsunami early-warning system in the Indian Ocean, of a type in place in the Pacific. U.S. and U.N. officials said previous studies had estimated the risk of a tsunami in the Indian Ocean to be relatively small.
U.N. officials said a conference next month in Kobe, Japan, would focus on improving early-warning systems.
