More than two million quake victims need aid

Helicopters ferrying supplies to Pakistan's quake survivors in the Himalayas may have to be grounded if donors don't get more relief aid, a U.N. official has warned.As the icy winter descends from the world's tallest peaks, the United Nations has said that more than two million people need shelter, medical care, food, water and sanitation facilities.

Initially the global agency said $311 million was needed in the aftermath of the massive October 8 quake that devastated parts of northern Pakistan, India and Afghanistan, but this week revised that to $550 million because the unprecedented "disaster is much larger than first assumed."

At a donor conference in Geneva on Wednesday, only $16 million was raised for the flash appeal, and on Thursday U.N. staff recorded only $2 million in new contributions, bringing the total including other donations to $113 million, far short of the $550 million needed, according to Reuters reports. "When the money runs out, the choppers stay on the ground and that's what's going to start happening in the next couple of days," Reuters news agency quoted Robert Smith, financial expert at the U.N.'s leading disaster-relief body, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), as saying.

The U.N.'s World Food Programme (WFP) has said it is alarmed that so little money has been committed, Reuters says. The AP has quoted WFP spokesman David Orr as saying the agency needs money and supplies to distribute more than 500 tons of food aid a day.

The agency has yet to reach a half-million people in remote villages, although those communities were believed to have some food stocks, he said.

To make matters worse, relief efforts are hampered by massive logistical problems, continued aftershocks and mudslides in Pakistan's mountainous area.

Snow and landslides triggered by some 900 recorded aftershocks have made most roads impassable, so helicopters that can cost up to $6,000 per hour are seen as the only way of reaching those that are stranded.

Already around 54,197 people have been counted as dead, while the number of injured has jumped to about 78,000, most of them with multiple fractures, the Federal Relief Commission has told CNN.

Already around 54,197 people have been counted as dead, while the number of injured has jumped to about 78,000, most of them with multiple fractures, the Federal Relief Commission has told CNN.

The United Nations has warned that the death toll could double if immediate aid is not mobilized and delivered to the thousands of people scattered all over the region.

Thousands of injured, dehydrated and undernourished survivors, sheltering in the fields in makeshift shelters or in the open air in temperatures below zero, are likely to die unless they can be reached before the harsh winter starts, the agency said.

Fears of disease are growing after health officials said 22 people had died from tetanus, with doctors also bracing for a spike in pneumonia, bronchitis and other, according to AP reports.

There had been 111 tetanus cases since the temblor struck, of which 22 were fatal, Sacha Bootsma of the World Health Organization told AP.

Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf, said this week that efforts to provide help were being redoubled in the face of winter's arrival in the North West Frontier province and the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir, regions hardest-hit by the disaster, reports CNN International. I.L.