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Healthcare slowly restored in central Philippines' storm-hit Guiuan

Healthcare slowly restored in central Philippines' storm-hit Guiuan

by Thin Lei Win | @thinink | Thomson Reuters Foundation

Super typhoon Haiyan, locally known as Yolanda, made the first of six landfalls in the early morning of Nov. 8 in Guiuan, a town in Eastern Samar province in central Philippines. With maximum sustained winds of 235 km per hour and gusts of 275 km per hour, it was one of the strongest storms to ever have made landfall.

It wiped out just about everything in its path, killing over 4,000 people, injuring more than 18,000 others and displacing some 4.4 million. Nearly two weeks after the storm struck, debris is still piled up on roadsides in many towns and villages and a government official estimated the reconstruction bill would reach $5.8 billion.
In Guiuan, ferocious winds snapped trees in half and blew roofs off most houses and public buildings, including the general hospital and the local health centre. Many people were injured by corrugated iron sheets that are commonly used as roofing material, falling concrete and shards of glass.

Medical aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres is working with local health authorities and doctors to get health services up and running and have set up inpatient and outpatient services in the ruins of the former hospital and clinic.

It said it had conducted 60 minor surgeries for lacerations, broken bones and infected wounds and provided more than 1,000 general healthcare consultations in three days.

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