Haiti aid picks up, doctors fear disease risk

The pace of food and medical aid deliveries picked up in earthquake-shattered Haiti, providing some hope to desperate survivors, but doctors worried disease would be the next big challenge for the tens of thousands left injured and homeless a week ago.

Medical teams pouring in to set up mobile hospitals said they were already overwhelmed by the casualties and warned of the immediate threats of tetanus and gangrene as well as the spread of measles, meningitis and other infections.

No one has begun to estimate the number of injuries from the magnitude 7 earthquake, which destroyed much of the capital Port-au-Prince on Jan. 12. Haitian officials said the death toll was likely to be between 100,000 and 200,000.

One sign of the return to normality was the emergence of street vendors offering fruit and vegetables for sale. Still, on Monday, hundreds of scavengers and looters swarmed over damaged stores in Port-au-Prince, seizing goods and fighting among themselves.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said he had recommended to the Security Council that 1,500 police and 2,000 troops be added to the 9,000-member U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti to provide security assistance for Haiti's shattered government.

More than 11,000 U.S. military personnel are on the ground, on ships offshore or en route, including some 2,200 Marines with earth-moving equipment, medical aid and helicopters.

Haitian President Rene Preval said U.S. troops will help U.N. peacekeepers keep order on Haiti's increasingly lawless streets, where overstretched police and U.N. peacekeepers have been unable to provide full security. Monday evening, gunfire could be heard in the wrecked capital city.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said U.S. forces would not play a police role but would defend themselves and "have the right to defend innocent Haitians and members of the international community if they see something happen."

Another U.S. military official said the violence was isolated and was not impeding the humanitarian aid mission.

On Monday, U.S. troops protected distribution of aid, which has begun arriving more regularly at the U.S.-run airfield and airdropped of thousands of packets of food and water to those waiting in make-shift refugee camps.

THE SHAPE OF AID PROGRAMS

World leaders have promised massive amounts of assistance to rebuild Haiti, where on Sunday survivors asked the U.N. secretary-general, "Where is the food? Where is the help?"

Haiti's president appealed to donors to focus not just on immediate aid for Haitians but also on long-term development of the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.

"We cannot just cure the wounds of the earthquake. We must develop the economy, agriculture, education, health and reinforce democratic institutions," Preval said at a conference of donors in neighboring Dominican Republic.

Dominican President Leonel Fernandez, hosting the meeting, proposed the creation of a $2 billion-a-year fund to finance Haiti's recovery over five years.