The myth of 'Apocalypse N.O.'

Reports warn that the next big problem to hit New Orleans will be disease - but the only things reaching epidemic proportions are rumour and speculation.

After all the discussion about looting, rape and murder, hacks are waiting with pencils sharpened for signs of a major disease outbreak in the polluted and stagnant waters of the city. This week, it was reported that five people had died from a cholera-related illness. Outbreaks of cholera, typhoid, malaria and West Nile virus have all been contemplated.

But even America's official disease watchers, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, believe the risks have been overstated. Cholera, typhoid and dengue fever weren't present in the area and they can't appear out of nowhere. That's because these diseases, along with malaria, have long since been defeated in the USA. The infection that has claimed some lives so far, vibrio vulnificus, kills a few dozen people on the Gulf Coast each year anyway - a situation that is unlikely to change. And the winds scared away or killed the birds that might have spread West Nile virus.

The media sharks circling around the Katrina-battered city will just have to carry on searching for fresh meat.

Health risks in the South may have been overstated, CBS 5, 8 September 2005