AKIPRESS.COM - Death toll from a dam collapse in Brazil rose to 65, with 279 people still missing, said Lt. Col. Flavio Godinho of the civil defense department in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais.

In a sign of the risks posed by the deep mud, Col. Alexandre Ferreira, a doctor with the military police of Minas Gerais, advised rescue crews, volunteers and journalists to take antibiotics to prevent cholera, the bacterial infection leptospirosis and other diseases, TIME reported.

Officials said the death toll was expected to grow “exponentially,” since no had been rescued alive since Saturday.

The mine’s owner, Vale SA, is the world’s largest producer of iron ore, the raw ingredient for making steel. The Brazilian company’s American depository shares plunged 18 percent Monday on the New York Stock Exchange.

Over the weekend, courts froze about $3 billion from Vale assets for state emergency services and told the company to report on how it would help victims. 

About 250,000 people were left without drinking water thousands of fish died. An estimated 60 million cubic meters (646 million square feet) of waste flooded nearby rivers and eventually flowed into the Atlantic Ocean.