Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd has arrived in Pakistan, where he has met doctors and nurses assisting with the unfolding humanitarian disaster caused by flood waters.
He has announced that Australia is directing another 40 million dollars in aid to the country.
"This contribution from Australia is based on the advice of AusAID and is designed to assist with the immediate challenges which go to the emerging problem of water-borne diseases as well as other challenges of simple shelter, food and emergency medicine,"
he told AAP.
Rudd says the rest of the world must lift its game too, to support the massive relief effort in a nation reeling from its worst floods in a century.
He says more than 21 million people are already affected by the disaster, more than the combined impacts of the Asian tsunami, 2005 Kashmir earthquake and 2010 Haiti earthquake.
Australia's now the fifth largest contributor to the flood relief appeal, helping with the emerging problem of water-borne diseases as well as shelter, food and emergency medicine.
Disease looms, says Rudd
The death toll remains mercifully low - less than 2000 - but the flood water progressively inundated Pakistan's most productive farmland, destroying crops and homes, leaving millions in desperate need of food and medical assistance.
Speaking after visiting the 180-member Australian Medical Assistance Team - called AUSMAT - at Kot Adu, in the Punjab, Mr Rudd said the Australia team was treating about 250 people each day,supplementing Pakistan's over-stretched primary medical services.
Mr Rudd said he wished he could say the worst was past but health experts had advised that a second wave of water-borne diseases, including malaria and cholera, were on the way. Mr Rudd said the mission was set down to run for 90 days.
"Well, we'll see because I am the Australian government - when it comes to AusAID," he said. "So we'll see what the local needs are because having spoken to folks about the unfolding needs, we might need to be creative about how we take this forward."
After a flying visit to the Punjab, Rudd is now on his way to a donors' conference at the United Nations.
