U.N. sees health crisis risk from South Asia floods

GENEVA (Reuters) - Millions of people could fall ill with malaria, dengue fever and other diseases if emergency aid does not reach those stranded by floodwaters in South Asia within days, the United Nations warned on Tuesday.

The U.N. Children's Fund UNICEF said stagnant waters left behind after intense monsoons in India, Bangladesh and Nepal were "a lethal breeding ground" for diarrhoeal and water-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue fever.

"Entire villages are days away from a health crisis if people are not reached in the coming days," UNICEF's health chief for India, Marzio Babille, said in a statement.

World Health Organisation (WHO) spokeswoman Fadela Chaib said acute respiratory and skin infections, food-borne ailments and snake bites were also threatening the 30 million people affected by flash flooding in the region.

Many people in affected areas are relying on dirty surface water for their basic needs, with water sources contaminated or still submerged in the wake of the floods.

"The main problem is access to clean water and sanitation," Chaib told a news briefing, noting that U.N. agencies, other aid groups and governments were working to ensure water, rehydration salts and other medical supplies reached those in need.

Many remote communities and villages are only accessible by boat or through air drops, and security concerns in some areas has further hindered efforts to deliver humanitarian aid, UNICEF spokeswoman Veronique Taveau said.

Victims of the floods -- the worst South Asia has seen in years -- have complained that aid has been slow to reach them. At least 487 people have drowned, died from snakebites, hunger or water-borne diseases, or have been crushed to death or electrocuted since the monsoon waters submerged swathes of the subcontinent downstream from the Himalayan mountains.