Tremors scare Java quake victims, bird flu threat

Aftershocks rattled Indonesia's quake-ravaged region overnight, spreading panic among thousands of homeless survivors, as aid groups rushed to deliver clean water and warned of an increased threat of bird flu.
Several aftershocks, which Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said registered about magnitude 4, shook the region overnight, sending many survivors running from their makeshift tents.
"Last night and this morning I felt some quakes. I was sleeping. I just ran away, out of the tent," said 40-year-old Hardady, who lives in the village of Kerten, which was badly hit by the quake.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Saturday that the magnitude 6.3 quake, which flattened villages in Yogyakarta and Central Java provinces at dawn a week ago and killed over 6,200, had forced some survivors to seek shelter in poultry sheds. "Is there an increased threat and danger? Yes, it's something we have to be very watchful of," a WHO spokeswoman told Reuters. "In Indonesia there's been a high record of human cases and we have to look out for avian flu."
Poultry across Indonesia have died from bird flu, but the 36 human deaths reported since the disease emerged in the country in late 2003. No human deaths have been recorded in the quake zone.
WHO is also concerned about the spread of diarrhoea, cholera and viral hepatitis, but said there were no reports of outbreaks. Aid groups are distributing 65,000 jerry cans with water purification kits in the two provinces, which can provide a family of five with clean water for a month.
"Dirty water is causing skin infections, especially in young children," Korean doctor Hong Kwong Moon said in the village of Kerten. "There are also some cases of diarrhoea here. The water is contaminated, people are washing with it and it infects skin."
The United Nations has unveiled plans for a $103 million six-month relief operation to provide aid like emergency shelter, medical assistance, clean water, sanitation, food and child protection across the quake-devastated region.