By Sea or Donkey, Delivering Medicine to the Field

Typhoon Haiyan, equivalent to a category 5 hurricane, has affected an estimated 9.9 million people in the Philippines. The storm, which made landfall on November 8, caused widespread devastation, displacing 3.4 million people and destroying over 1 million houses, according to the United Nations. This rare and very powerful storm has severely disrupted the delivery of critical health services, and access to safe water continues to be a serious problem for the affected regions.

Since access to affected areas has improved with the clearing of roads and the re-opening of most airports, relief efforts from humanitarian organizations and the Government of the Philippines have scaled up substantially. While humanitarian assistance is getting through to the hard hit areas urban areas with high populations, efforts must continue to extend to the rural and remote villages, many of which have not received any assistance to-date.

Damaged Health Care Infrastructure: Super Typhoon Haiyan caused widespread destruction and damage to permanent health facilities which has slowed the recovery efforts and has caused shortages of essential medicines and medical supplies. The Government of the Philippines has announced plans for rebuilding or rehabilitating destroyed or damaged health facilities and appealed to the private sector and NGOs to offer resources and expertise to address gaps in infrastructure, equipment, and staffing. However, in the immediate term, services are being provided through a mixture of mobile medical clinics and temporary health facilities. As such, there is a tremendous need for medicines and medical supplies to be delivered to the affected areas in order to provide adequate medical care to the population. The need for these daily supplies will only continue to grow as facilities are brought back online or made functional, because supplies lost in the storm will need to be replaced in order to regain the ability to operate as they did before the storm.

International Medical Corps response: International Medical Corps is on the ground in the Philippines providing medical services through ten mobile medical units in some of the hardest-hit areas following Typhoon Haiyan. International Medical Corps is also conducting water, sanitation and hygiene; medical; and mental health assessments in affected communities, and has begun nutrition screening and treatment referral for children.

By working through mobile medical units, International Medical Corps has been able to provide critical health services on remote islands where families struggle to access medical care and basic resources.

With the support of its partners, International Medical Corps has sent hundreds of hygiene kits, scrubs, antibiotics, primary health medicines and 5 Interagency Emergency Health Kits that can each support 10,000 people for approximately three months. These supplies are being distributed through its mobile medical units to vulnerable communities in isolated and heavily impacted areas.  The top conditions being treated are open wounds and bruises (from reconstruction efforts), acute respiratory infection, hypertension, fever and skin diseases. Left untreated, these conditions can quickly become life-threatening among vulnerable populations such as infants and the elderly.

The demand for critical medicines paired with the difficult logistical situation has made it difficult and costly to supply medical items to where they are desperately needed, which is making the situation more urgent. International Medical Corps’ efforts to obtain and distribute medicines and supplies will help to maintain health of the most vulnerable while the health care infrastructure is restored in the hardest hit areas of the Philippines. As little as $15,000 can send an emergency health kit that will provide medicine and supplies for a community of 10,000 people for three months. Kits like these are vital for our Emergency Response Unit - they often depend on shipments like these to provide care for communities affected by disaster.