NEW DELHI (Reuters) - There is a risk of epidemics breaking out among the survivors of the devastating earthquake in western India but so far the incidence of even diarrhea there is not alarming, a medical expert said on Monday.

``The first thing that usually shows up is diarrheal disease and there are some indications that there are some cases coming up now,'' said Dr. Hakan Sandblad, emergency health coordinator for the Geneva-based International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. ``It's not an alarming rate at all.''

``I think the prime target is to see whether diarrheal disease is actually increasing, and be aggressive on treating that, especially on the prevention side.''

He told Reuters by phone from Geneva that due to poor sanitation, hepatitis was likely to be present in Kutch, which bore the brunt of the January 26 quake. But it may not emerge as an epidemic because many local people have already been exposed to it.

Other effects of unclean water were likely to include chest infections. Sandblad said that this had so far been the most common infection--especially among the young--seen at the Red Cross hospital set up in the town of Bhuj.

As is the case with hepatitis, many people have been exposed to typhoid in the past so there might not be a serious outbreak of this disease.

As for cholera, he said the cold nights could hold it at bay, and noted that cholera had not reared its head after the January 13 quake in El Salvador and last August's quake in Turkey.

He sought to dispel a common misconception that dead bodies lying out in the open can cause more disease than living beings.

``Basically there is a risk of epidemics but it's not really related to the dead bodies, it's rather the sanitary problems,'' he said. ``People have the misconception that there is much more bacteria in dead bodies than in living animals and human beings.''

(From Yahoo)