AmeriCares Disaster Relief Expert Headed to Japan

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STAMFORD, CT- AmeriCares is dispatching an emergency response expert to assess the health needs in Japan after a record 8.9-magnitude earthquake earlier today unleashed a deadly tsunami. With a disaster of this magnitude we anticipate a need for medical aid in the coming days and weeks. AmeriCares emergency response experts are in contact with local officials and hospitals treating survivors and are prepared to send medicines, medical supplies and humanitarian aid as needed. "Japan is a wealthy, industrialized nation that prepares for emergencies like these, but as we learned from Hurricane Katrina, a disaster of this magnitude can stretch the resources of even the most prepared countries," said Christoph Gorder, AmeriCares Senior Vice President of Global Programs. "After a tsunami there's always an enormous need for antibiotics and wound care supplies to treat survivors with infected wounds and respiratory infections from inhaling contaminated sea water." AmeriCares has provided medical relief and humanitarian assistance to millions affected by natural disasters and man-made crises around the world for nearly 30 years including the 2005 tsunami in Southeast Asia. Our emergency response work also includes the 2010 earthquakes in Haiti and Chile and the 1994 Kobe earthquake in Japan. AmeriCares emergency response work often lasts years beyond the initial disaster - as we rebuild hospitals and health clinics and restore health services destroyed by the disaster. One year after the Haiti earthquake AmeriCares is still delivering medical aid to health care facilities treating survivors, and six years after the Southeast Asia tsunami, AmeriCares is still helping to rebuild hospitals for survivors in Sri Lanka.