The World Health Organisation (WHO) says that the risk of epidemics breaking out in earthquake-devastated Haiti is increasing as the rainy season approaches.

WHO says it already is receiving reports of a growing number of cases of diarrhea, measles and tetanus, the Voice of America said on January 30 2010.

WHO says people are at great risk of getting diarrhea, cholera and other water-borne diseases because of the bad sanitary conditions and contaminated water.
It says contagious diseases such as measles can spread like wildfire in the overcrowded, squalid resettlement camps.

The US Army has set up a data collection centre in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to assess the needs of residents in the aftermath of the massive earthquake on January 12. Thousands who come daily are in desperate need of water, food and work.

Ten thousand people come to the centre most days, at a building of the Haitian agriculture ministry, which the US Army is using temporarily as a data collection and operations centre.

Soldiers outside the gate try to keep the crowds orderly, separating men and women into separate lines. Small numbers are allowed to enter through the iron gates every few minutes.

The US military said that it had stopped flying Haitian earthquake victims to the US for medical care following concerns by some state governments over who will pay for their treatment, VOA reported on January 30.

Military officials say the evacuations were suspended on January 27, after Florida governor Charlie Crist asked the federal government to help pay for the care.

On January 30, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today began ramping up its operations in Haiti by opening 16 fixed food distribution sites offering supplies to about two million people affected by earthquake.

"Up until now the nature of this emergency has forced us to work in a 'quick and dirty' way simply to get food out," WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said, quoted by the UN News Service.

Characterising the emergency relief operation in Haiti as the most complex ever faced by the agency, Sheeran said that the 16 fixed sites were an important step towards achieving food stability.

"This distribution system will not only allow us to reach more people, it will give us the qualitative step we need to facilitate the delivery of all kinds of humanitarian assistance in the weeks and months to come," she said.

The distribution sites aim to reach more than two million people during a two-week period under the leadership of the Haitian government, and in co-ordination with the UN Mission in Haiti, the US military, and a group of key non-governmental organisations.

The UN News Service said on January 29, quoting UN Emergency Relief Co-ordinator John Holmes, that the emergency relief operation in Haiti was continuing to make progress on a daily basis although considerable logistical restraints had meant large numbers of people suffering from the impact of the earthquake have not yet received the aid they need.

"We have a long way to go before we can feel satisfied about that," Holmes told reporters at UN Headquarters in New York.

For the most part potable water was being shipped to the people who need it, but there were major concerns over the distribution of food, Holmes said.

In Bulgaria, bTV, in co-operation with Unicef, will broadcast a four-hour fundraiser for Haiti on February 2 2010. The event has been endorsed by Prime Minister Boiko Borissov.