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The town of Labutta in Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta has suffered some of the worst damage and losses of life after Cyclone Nargis ripped through the region. Now, more than one week later, evidence of the powerful storm is still clearly visible. Here a third of patients seen by medics have laceration wounds on their backs from the stinging rain and debris whipped up by winds of 190 kph (120 mph). According to local doctors, sepsis, a rampant infection of the bloodstream that causes organ failure, was widespread already just two days after the former Burma's worst natural disaster in recent memory. Many patients are suffering from diarrhoea and dehydration, and there is little saline for intravenous drips. Dirty water, a cause of cholera, is a major problem, doctors warn. UNICEF, the U.N. children's agency, estimates 20 percent of children in the worst affected areas already have diarrhoea and cases of malaria have been reported. But international aid charities have been frustrated by Myanmar's ruling military junta's refusal to allow them into the country with life saving supplies. Oxfam and World Vision warn that more than 1.5 million people in Myanmar are at risk of death if aid efforts cannot reach cyclone victims in the coming weeks or months. SOUNDBITE: Sarah Ireland, Oxfam Regional Director for East Asia, saying: (English) "We're afraid that a real potential risk of a massive public health catastrophe is waiting to happen in Myanmar." SOUNDBITE: Samson Jeyakumar, World Vision Director of Child-Focused Programming, saying: (English) "We already have information that there are diarrhoea cases being reported. Cholera is a matter of time and it can happen at anytime." The situation in Myanmar compares badly with that after a tsunami hit the Indian Ocean nations. Foreign aid groups had almost immediate access to the disaster areas and provided food, clean water, sanitation and primary health care to more than 1.5 million displaced people in tsunami-affected Indian Ocean nations. That quick response helped to prevent a much-feared "second wave of deaths" from epidemics after the giant waves damaged or destroyed major health care centres and killed medical staff. But the generals continue to resist an influx of foreign workers and equipment such as helicopters and boats to get the aid down to the disaster areas quickly. And that leaves people like these watching and waiting for aid that may never come . Penny Tweedie, Reuters.