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International Medical Corps Emergency Response Team Delivers Critical Services in Guiuan, Where Typhoon Haiyan Made Landfall

by Jaya Vadlamudi, Senior Communications Officer, Jaya Vadlamudi | International Medical Corps - USA
Friday, 15 November 2013 20:18 GMT

* Any views expressed in this article are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.

November 15, 2013 - Los Angeles - International Medical Corps’ Emergency Response Team in the Philippines is on the ground delivering services on the remote island of Guiuan, which was one of the first- and hardest-hit by Typhoon Haiyan. The team was met by hundreds of people lined up on the tarmac waiting for food, water and medical care. The devastation and humanitarian needs they are witnessing are extensive, but they have been able to immediately begin providing medical care and delivering critical supplies and food to survivors.

Margaret Aguirre, a member of International Medical Corps’ Emergency Response Team, provided an update from Guiuan via satellite phone. She describes the conditions on the ground and the most pressing humanitarian needs survivors face. Listen to her update from the field here.

International Medical Corps’ team is already reporting cases of diarrheal disease due to a lack of clean water. An increase in dengue fever, tetanus and measles is expected as well.The team is making their way to villages on the island where no one has sent help in order to tend to the sick and injured.

Following the catastrophic storm, which has affected more than 11.8 million people, International Medical Corps deployed a ten-member international Emergency Response Team that includes medical professionals and water and sanitation experts. The organization has also recruited 40 local medical volunteers to staff mobile medical units (MMUs) in and around the hardest-hit coastal towns of Tacloban and Tanauan. Through the MMUs, International Medical Corps will deliver health care services, with a special emphasis on child and maternal health; nutrition monitoring; medication; clean water; hygiene awareness and promotion; and psychosocial support and training for frontline health care workers.

International Medical Corps has been a first-responder to numerous natural disasters in southeast Asia, including Cyclone Phailin in India in October, the tsunami in Japan two years ago, the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan, and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

To support International Medical Corps’ Emergency Response in the Philippines:

Learn more: https://internationalmedicalcorps.org/typhoon_haiyan

Give: https://internationalmedicalcorps.org/how-you-can-help/philippines

Text: “MED” to 80888 from any US cell to give ${esc.dollar}{esc.dollar}10 to International Medical Corps’ emergency response efforts in the Philippines. *Data and messaging rates may apply

Since its inception nearly 30 years ago, International Medical Corps' mission has been consistent: relieve the suffering of those impacted by war, natural disaster, and disease, by delivering vital health care services and sustainable development projects that focus on training. This approach of helping people help themselves is critical to returning hardest-hit populations to self-reliance. For more information visit: www.InternationalMedicalCorps.org. Also see us Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

 

 

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