One week on from Typhoon Haiyan, teams from Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) are active on Samar, Leyte, and Panay Islands.
MSF now have 152 staff on the ground, including doctors, nurses, surgeons, water and sanitation experts and psychologists. 232 tonnes of supplies have arrived, with more landing on cargo planes in the coming days.
As well as preparing to set up an inflatable hospital in Tacloban, MSF teams are running a clinic out of hospital ruins in Guiuan, and are preparing to reach out to remote communities on live aboard dive boats packed with humanitarian relief items and medical equipment.
Henry Gray, MSF emergency co-ordinator, said: "The medical needs we’ve seen are what we’d expect after a disaster – people need treatment for cuts and contusions, they need tetanus shots. Once treated, the medical needs will soon dip, but they’ll grow if we don’t get on top of things – especially water and sanitation.”
A range of UK specialists are working in the emergency operations, please call Sophie-Jane Madden on 0207 067 4217 for more details or to arrange an interview.
Samar island - a 26-strong MSF team has been working in Guiuan for the past three days, performing 600 consultations in the first day, and 300 on the third day - Twenty-seven patients underwent minor surgery for lacerations, broken bones and infected wounds - A second team is at the town’s public hospital preparing to set up a tent facility to provide secondary healthcare including to women having complicated deliveries and needing c-sections
Leyte island - in Tacloban the team of eight will expand to 18 in the coming days to set up an inflatable hospital which will provide comprehensive medical care including an emergency room, in-patient department, operating theatre, post-operative ward, obstetrics & gynaecology unit, maternity delivery room, psychosocial activities, blood bank, X-ray, and an isolation ward in case of tetanus cases - The hospital will be run by British A&E doctor Natalie Roberts
- in Cebu MSF teams are providing basic care to people being evacuated from Tacloban
- A first cargo of non-food items (NFIs) landed in Cebu on Saturday with 1,500 tents, 3,000 jerrycans, 9,000 blankets, 2,000 hygiene kits and 2,000 cooking kits.
Two more cargos are expected this week with 14,000 blankets, 3,000 jerrycans, 1,000 cooking kits and 1,000 hygiene kits
In Burawuen the team plans to set up a tented hospital with surgical capacity asap. Forty-seven tons of cargo arrived in Cebu on Sunday and three trucks loaded with logistical and medical materials are on their way to Burauen by ferry, due to arrive on Monday. ”In Burauen, a city of 55,000 inhabitants, the situation is disastrous,” says Federica Nogarotto, emergency coordinator in south Leyte. “Nearly 100% of houses are damaged or destroyed and the hospital – formerly a 70-bed referral hospital with surgical capacity – is completely damaged.” -MSF teams are also providing care through mobile clinics, health posts and in evaluation centres in Palo, Talawan, Ormoc, Santa Fe. -In Dulag Town, MSF teams report that they are seeing an increasing numbers of patients with diarrhoea.
Panay Island -MSF started treating patients in Carles, in northeastern Iloilo province, on Sunday. - MSF helicopter assessments report that the northeastern coastline of Panay and the islands have been severely affected with 90% destruction rates. The immediate needs are for shelter and water, while access to healthcare is also a major concern. MSF expects to see many people with respiratory illnesses and diarrhoea. - On Saturday, MSF teams visited Balasan, Sara, Bagacai, Estancia and San Dionisio in Iloilo province. They report that the needs are enormous, with many health facilities destroyed. - MSF plans to establish a base in Estancia and carry out mobile clinics. Teams will travel by boat to reach the small islands east of Panay.
ENDS