An Ottawa physician returning from Haiti says its citizens need more medical personnel to help tackle the growing sanitation crisis the country faces in refugee camps after an earthquake hit Haiti Jan. 12.

"In terms of health, it's the access to the help they need," Robert Yelle, who spent 11 days in Haiti, told CTV Ottawa.

"What's happening is that supplies aren't necessarily delivered in the ratio of what's needed there."

Although the conditions were tough, Yelle said he came away from the experience with respect for how Haitians focus on what they have left rather than what they lost.

As an example, Yelle recalled delivering a baby in Haiti. When the parents asked him to name the girl, Yelle chose the moniker of his own daughter: Marika.

Canadian doctors aim to reduce quake injuries

In the weeks after the disaster, military and civilian physicians from Canada flew to Haiti to treat those hurt in the magnitude-7.0 earthquake.

Canada added another special medical unit, from the Disaster Assistance Relief Team, on Sunday as aid officials in the country struggled to give out food to those who need it.

The mobile medical team from DART spent their time in Leogane, a small town just west of Port-au-Prince.

It's an area with reports of scavenging, and also one that Canadian officials assessed as a hotspot of earthquake-induced injuries.

Each mobile medical team from DART has a dozen medical personnel accompanied by soldiers, aiming to treat about 100 people a day, said Canadian Forces Major Bernard Dionne.

Using a method that Dionne says brought great success in the Pakistani earthquake of 2005, one team will head out every day. Helicopters will airlift them into areas with no roads.

Food distribution restricted to women

Relief workers in the country insisted this weekend that only women will be able to get food from distribution sites, in efforts to stop the reported stealing and threats gang members use in lineups.

There are now 16 distribution sites in the capital city of Port-au-Prince entitling each family to 25 kilograms of rice.

That said, UN officials estimated 2 million people -- nearly 20 per cent of Haiti's population of 9.8 million -- need food aid. Measures taken so far will still not reach everyone, they added.

Sanitation a growing problem

Conditions in the shanty towns that sprung up after the crisis are deterioriating, with the Associated Press reporting that women recycle water several times a day -- for brushing teeth, for washing food and also for bathing.

What's happening is that supplies aren't necessarily delivered in the ratio of what's needed [in Haiti].

-- Ottawa doctor Robert Yelle

Latrines, clean water and food are all in shortage, creating concerns that epidemics will quickly spread among the 1 million displaced in the earthquake.

Dengue and malaria are already sprouting in these areas, with some hospitals reporting half of their child patients are diagnosed with these conditions.

Officials say the one bright spot for sanitation is the rainy season, the peak time for mosquitoes that could spread disease, won't begin until April.

With a report from CTV Ottawa's Kristy Kirkup, and files from The Canadian Press and the Associated Press