Health and nutritional status of Tongan preschool children after Cyclone Isaac.

A post-cyclone assessment of the health and nutritional status of preschool children at Ha'apai, Tonga Is, showed lower disease incidence and an unchanged pattern of illness. Height and weight measurements indicated nutrition problems to be chronic and perhaps unrelated to the effects of the disaster. This study supports the hypothesis that natural disasters do not generate new diseases or necessarily lead to disease outbreaks.