Mr Sheriff said earthquake victims were suffering from poor hygiene

He said the current problem was a lack of clean water and sanitation.

"There is a real danger that as many lives could be lost this winter as there were from the earthquake."

Up to 100,000 people are still without proper shelter following the earthquake which hit Pakistan and northern India. Sunday is the first anniversary of the disaster.

'Poor hygiene'

"It was as if the earth had woken and engulfed whole communities. The devastation's enormous," he said.

Dr Sheriff is aiming to continue his work with field hospitals and shelter programmes.

"Unless you have proper shelter you will die," he said.

"Cholera and dysentery is actually killing a lot of very young and the elderly who are clearly feeble or infirm because of poor hygiene essentially."

'Monsoon mudslides'

Meanwhile an aid worker from Kent has returned to the UK after spending six months restoring running water to a remote valley in Kashmir.

Chris Moss, from Maidstone, said his 80-strong team - who work for medical relief charity Merlin - faced a "mammoth task" when he arrived in the area in May.

"Close to 100% of the infrastructure in the valley had been destroyed by the earthquake. What remained was a muddy mass of broken buildings.

"The terrain continued to be treacherous. The region had one ravine-flanked road which was blocked by monsoon mudslides."

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