Bangladesh's health minister on Sunday said the health situation in the country's cyclone-hit coastal areas is under control.

Local media has reported several thousands people got diarrhea and a few people have died after the cyclone Aila battered the country's southwestern coast on May 25, leaving 168 people dead so far.

Local reports said the water borne disease may take epidemic form due to scarcity of safe drinking water and medicine in the cyclone affected coastal districts.

The country's Health Minister AFM Ruhal Haque after an inter- ministerial meeting on post-cyclone situation here on Sunday said at a press conference that the government has taken enough measures to prevent outbreak of water-borne disease in the affected districts.

"I am quite confident that the health situation will remain under control," he said, putting the diarrhea patients number at several hundred.

Haque said some 891 medical teams are working in the affected coastal areas and local health officials were instructed to extend all necessary support to cyclone victims.

According to press release of the Health Ministry issued here on Sunday, the country's public health department has a stock of some 12.5 million water treatment tablets which will be distributed to the affected areas.

Meanwhile, control rooms have been set up under government hospitals in all affected districts and sub-districts to monitor the situation.

The health minister, however, said the government has sought assistance from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to provide medicines.

The Food and Disaster Management Minister Abdur Razzak who also attended the press conference admitted there is huge demand of saline and clean water in the affected coastal areas.

He said they are also facing problems when distributing relief materials to some remote islands.

The cyclone Aila formed in the Bay of Bengal hit Bangladesh's southwestern coast on Monday with a speed of 70-90 kilometers per hour, leaving thousands of people injured and more than 3.2 million affected in a dozen of the coastal districts.

This was the biggest natural calamity in Bangladesh after cyclone Sidr battered the country's southwestern coastal belt on Nov. 15, 2007 and claimed lives of over 4,000 people.

The food minister Razzak said so far 20 million taka (about 285, 714 U.S. dollars) cash and 15,150 tons of rice have been distributed to the affected people.

The government also decided to allocate 300 million taka (about 4.3 million U.S. dollars) for relief and rehabilitation work in the affected areas.

He said army troops will be deployed to repair some 203 kms out of over 1,000 kms damaged embankment on priority, which requires 1. 16 billion taka (about 16.6 million U.S. dollars).

Meanwhile, he said another 1.03 billion taka (about 14.7 million U.S. dollars) is needed to repair 736-km damaged road out of some 7,000 kms road damaged either completely or partially.