Disease breaking out after Solomon Islands quake

HONIARA (Reuters) - Aid workers battled an outbreak of diarrhea on Thursday among Solomon Islanders who fled their homes after an earthquake and tsunami that killed at least 34 in the tiny Pacific nation.

Australian media said 11 children were believed to have perished in the village of Titiana, once home to about 700 people but now mostly deserted with only a few buildings still standing.

A two-year-old girl and her four-year-old brother were swept from their mother's arms by Monday's tsunami, and another family lost three children, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Scores of people were still missing, aid agencies and the United Nations said, and up to 5,400 people were crammed into makeshift camps in hills behind their coastal villages, too scared to go home.

"There have been many false alerts and warnings and people who have been back in the town have run back to the hills. The tremors have been quite strong," World Vision aid worker Tanya Rad told Reuters from the provincial capital, Gizo, which bore the brunt of the magnitude 8 quake and tsunami.

Aid workers brought tents and food to those affected, but Rad said supplies of fresh water and sanitation were the most pressing problems, with disease a growing complication.

"There's been an outbreak of diarrhea up in the camps but some camps have not been reached yet," Rad said, adding medical teams were on the way.

FOOD SHORTAGES

More than 2,000 people were crowded in one camp near the town but for some remote villagers, relief was still days away.

The only way for aid to reach many of the tiny islands was by boat, but many motorized canoes were swept away by Monday's tsunami, Rad said.

Authorities reopened Gizo's main airport early on Thursday, helping the relief effort, as the New Zealand and Australian air forces flew in medics, tarpaulins, water purifiers and other aid supplies to the country's worst-affected western islands.

The two countries' militaries have been active in peacekeeping in the Solomons for years, after repeated outbreaks of communal violence in a country that saw fierce fighting during World War Two on and around the island of Guadalcanal.

Solomon Islands disaster officials reported food shortages in Gizo, which were expected to worsen as local gardens were swamped by sea water. Food markets were closed and fishing disrupted.

The United Nations office for humanitarian affairs said initial reports showed 30 schools had been damaged and health facilities in several islands had been badly damaged.

Mosquito nets were being distributed to try to prevent an outbreak of malaria.

The Solomons earns some money from fishing, timber and dive resorts but most of the 500,000 people live on what they grow or catch from the sea on a string of small islands along the Pacific's "Ring of Fire", where volcanic activity and earthquakes are common.

($1=A$1.22)