Health problems have become a major concern in Aceh where over 45,000 people are confirmed dead in an earthquake-triggered tsunami that swept through the Indonesian province on Sunday.

Most of the four-day-old bodies have not been evacuated or buried, spreading the stink of rotten flesh to the air and threatening the outbreak of diarrhea and other deadly diseases.

To make things worse, medical workers and relief supplies failed to immediately reach survivors due to infrastructural damages and fuel shortage.

"Medicines cannot reach hospitals because there is no vehicle, no gasoline in Aceh," Minister of Health Dr Fadilah Supari said in Jakarta.

She said the plan to send more ambulances to Aceh was delayed due to fuel shortage.

The tidal waves left only a gas pump operating in the Aceh province of Banda Aceh, where at least 9,000 residents were killed in the massive-scale disaster.

Most of relief supplies are stranded in the neighboring province of North Sumatra.

In the remote town of Meulaboh, diarrhea has spread among refugees in the last two days with the absence of medical workers and medicines, reported Detikcom online news service.

"We have around 11,000 refugees, most of them are suffering diarrhea," district military commander in Meulaboh, Col. Gerhan Lantara, was quoted as saying.

"Food supply is adequate for the next seven days but we are lacking of clean water and medicines," he said.

Minister for Social Affairs Bachtiar Chamsyah has promised that relief supplies will arrive in Meulaboh later in the day.

The government uses warships and military crafts to transport water, food, medicine, rescue crews and medical workers to the coastal town, he said in the North Sumatra capital of Medan.

The first delivery of logistics is expected to reach Meulaboh at 20:00 Thursday, he said, adding that Meulaboh is given a priority as distribution in other areas are running properly.

Calls are mounting for the government to burn bodies to prevent further casualties in Aceh due to infectious diseases.

But the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) opposed the plan because it was an affront to Islam.

"The bodies must be buried according to the Islamic law," MUI head Asmuni Abdurrahman said.

Source: Xinhua