Emergency Aid to Haiti Tops $2.3 Million

FedEx donates airlift of critically needed medicines and supplies

In response to four major storms and massive flooding that have deluged Haiti and displaced more than 110,000 people, Direct Relief International has airlifted more than $1.6 million (wholesale) of medical material aid to on-the-ground partners and is staging an additional $737,000 of medical inventories for transport next week.

FedEx has provided air transport free of charge.

With food and clean water scarce, Direct Relief partners requested nutritional supplements, oral rehydration solutions, antibiotics, wound-care products, and personal care supplies. These essentials were donated by Abbott, Johnson & Johnson, and other corporate partners, or were purchased by the organization.

The delivered and staged materials, which total 26 tons, are being supplied to several partner organizations, including Visitation Hospital, Haitian Resource Development Foundation, and Partners in Health.

Visitation Hospital, a nonprofit outpatient facility in rural Petite Riviere de Nippes, serves a population of 266,000. Its staff of 25 sees about 85 patients a day and handles emergency care as needed. Comprehensive care is provided free of charge to 85 percent of its patients, whose health issues include serious malnutrition, malaria, and respiratory infections. The consignment of $635,000 (wholesale) of medicines, particularly antibiotics, is to support the clinic’s emergency treatment for flood-affected people.

Medicines and supplies valued at more than $370,000 have been furnished to the nonprofit Haitian Resource Development Foundation (HRDF), which supports three hospitals in Haiti, including the 200-bed Hôpital de la Communaute Haitienne in Petionville. The 24-hour facility treats more than 28,000 people a year for gastrointestinal and respiratory infections, hypertension, diabetes, and malnutrition. HRDF facilitates aid delivery through customs in Port-au-Prince and then on to hospitals.

HRDF President Dr. Aldy Castor reports that many roads are still impassable, and says that patients are presenting with dermatitis, cholera-like symptoms, and wound infections, all from prolonged contact with floodwaters. “The situation in Haiti is very precarious,” he reports. “The 800,000 people who were affected—10 percent of the country’s population—were already poor, and now they have lost everything, their homes, their crops, their possessions. When they get sick, they can’t take care of their children.” Antibiotics and personal care supplies are making the most difference now.

A 40-foot shipping container of medical aid is scheduled for delivery next week to Partners in Health, which provides comprehensive healthcare for half a million people living in the mountainous Central Plateau. In its 104-bed hospital and eight clinics across the region—home to the poorest people in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere—it treats hundreds of patients a day. It has mobilized staff to work in the storm-affected areas, as well.

Collapsed bridges and flooded or damaged roads remain obstacles, and as the waters recede, pervasive mud challenges transportation. As the academic year starts in Haiti, shelters set up in schools are being moved to allow classes to begin. Diarrheal diseases and respiratory and skin infections are most common among the displaced population, as sanitation systems are disrupted. Many Haitians were stranded on their rooftops for days during the worst of the flooding.

While Need Continues, Direct Relief Emergency Aid to Gulf States Tops $1 Million
September 20, 2008 

As health crises mount in Texas and Louisiana following Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, Direct Relief International has sent additional medical aid to partners in the region. These latest shipments bring the total value of hurricane emergency aid in the Gulf States to more than $1.1 million.

In Texas and Louisiana, more than 20,000 evacuees remain in shelters, as debris clogs roads, homes have been destroyed, and infrastructure is being repaired. Interrupted water service and nonfunctioning sewer systems have caused health concerns, especially in Galveston and the greater Houston area. In Louisiana, almost 25,000 homes have been flooded, and Gov. Bobby Jindal reported last Wednesday in a letter to President Bush that the state’s infrastructure had sustained $1 billion in damage.

To help those affected by the hurricanes, Direct Relief has provided ongoing shipments—a total of 30 since August 29—of urgently needed medicines and supplies such as antibiotics, analgesics, chronic medications, wound-care supplies, and personal care products. For people living in a shelter, even shampoo and soap can bring comfort, and good hygiene helps prevent disease transmission.

“These are 24- to 48-hour shelters,” said Lori Hooks of the Texas Association of Community Health Centers, “but people will be staying there for weeks.” Hooks reported that clinics and health centers are providing services at shelters and assessing damage to their own facilities, 12 of which were closed as of Friday. TACHC’s goal is to reinstate care at clinics as fast as possible; generators and mobile units are being brought in to help bring facilities back to operation.

In Galveston, a mobile unit clinic opening Monday will help take pressure off the crowded local hospital emergency room, though all pharmaceuticals will need to be replaced, and water, sewer, and power services are not up yet. The executive director of three clinic sites in Port Arthur—an East Texas town closed due to massive damage—has been allowed to tour her locations to assess damage this weekend.

“The biggest problems are standing water and no electricity,” said Hooks. “Mosquitoes are an issue, and it’s going to get really bad in the next few days as the weather heats up. People run out of medications when health centers are closed. And the longer people go without refrigeration, the more likely they are to eat spoiled food, which causes illness.”

Direct Relief also made a cash grant of $150,000 earlier this month to the National Association of Community Health Centers to help clinics buy emergency medicines to treat hurricane-affected populations. Health center needs range from medicines and supplies to funds to replace computer systems damaged by flooding.

At the start of hurricane season, Direct Relief positioned 18 hurricane preparedness packs throughout the Gulf Coast. These packs contain enough medical material for one site to treat 100 people for a 72-hour period.

Next Wave of Emergency Aid Sent to Gulf Coast Health Centers

September 16, 2008 

On Monday, Direct Relief International expanded hurricane aid with eight additional emergency consignments of medicines and supplies to Gulf State safety-net clinics serving displaced residents. Monday's activities, conducted with free logistics and transport support by FedEx, bring the total number of emergency shipments to Texas and Louisiana facilities to 22, valued at almost $450,000 (wholesale).

With widespread power outages and residents encouraged to stay in shelters due to extreme flooding and other damage, health centers in Louisiana and Texas are working around significant challenges following the two hurricanes. Direct Relief’s emergency response team expects to send several more shipments of specifically requested critical medical aid this week.

Health centers are treating evacuees for chronic conditions like asthma, diabetes, and hypertension. Clinicians are also seeing a notable increase in patients being treated for mental health issues, understandable in the face of great personal loss.

According to U.S. Census data released August 2008, 24.4 percent of people in Texas are uninsured—the highest percentage in the U.S. Health centers and community clinics serve this vulnerable population, and are a key resource in emergency response.

Two members of Direct Relief’s Domestic Programs staff are visiting Gulf State clinics this week to help assess needs and coordinate response efforts along with the Texas Association of Community Health Centers. Direct Relief is licensed by the Texas Department of State Health Services as a "Wholesale Distributor of Prescription Drugs," which means it can provide safety-net clinics with needed resources in emergencies and on an ongoing basis.

Direct Relief partners in the region have weathered the storms to varying degrees. Clinic director Clark Moore of Ubi Caritas in Beaumont, Texas, had to evacuate to Austin during Ike, and returned to assess damage yesterday. “Other than the drugs we have lost, we are OK,” Moore reported. “Our new clinic, which was built to with stand 150 mph winds, actually did.” Ubi Caritas plans to reopen this coming Monday, though, like much of the state, it is currently without power or sewer services.
 
 “We have 5,000 to 6,000 Hurricane Ike folks from Beaumont here in town,” said John English of Bethesda Clinic in Tyler, Texas. “Looks like they will be here for the next several weeks. Many are at shelters but they send them out for care, or call for supplies when needed.”

In July, 18 hurricane preparedness packs were sent to qualified health centers in the Gulf States; they have proven useful during this active hurricane season. 

“We are using the medications and supplies that you sent for hurricane season,” reported Janet Mentesane, of Martin Luther King Health Center in Shreveport, Louisiana, as Ike was bearing down last Saturday. “The government-run shelter calls in or emails medication orders, we fill them at the clinic, and then take them to the shelter. So far, it is running smoothly.”

Additional Medical Aid Set for Arrival at Clinics, Shelters Tuesday

Direct Relief International is preparing additional emergency medical material assistance to assist health centers and evacuation shelters serving those affected by Hurricane Ike, which made landfall in Galveston, Texas Friday evening as a Category Two storm.

Four sites will each receive specifically requested materials on Tuesday via overnight airfreight, generously donated by FedEx:

• Amistad Community Health Center, Corpus Christi, TX
• Texas Association of Community Health Centers (TACHC) Distribution Center, Austin, TX
• Primary Health Services Center, Monroe, LA
• United Community Health Center, Eunice, LA

Longtime corporate donors Abbott, BD, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Covidien, CVS, GlaxoSmithKline, Henry Schein, Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies, Matrixx, Merck, Miltex, Nexxus, sanofi-aventis, and Schering-Plough have given their product for use at these sites.

In addition to continued coordination with TACHC and the National Association of Community Health Centers, Direct Relief is working with the Lone Star Association of Charitable Clinics (LSACC), which represents 57 clinics throughout the state. LSACC is assisting Direct Relief in obtaining the medical material needs of its membership.

Since September 1, Direct Relief has supplied its medical safety-net partners in Texas and Louisiana with nearly $400,000 in medical material aid to assist their response to Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

Two members of Direct Relief’s domestic programs team will arrive in Louisiana on Sunday, and will be surveying clinic sites and evacuation centers throughout the week. Many evacuation shelters set up for Gustav are now serving those affected by Ike.

One such shelter in Shreveport, Louisiana, is being served by the Martin Luther King Health Center, a recipient of one of the 18 hurricane preparedness packs Direct Relief sent to safety-net clinics throughout the Gulf in July. [View video about these packs] According to e-mail messages from Janet Mentesane, executive director of the center, “The shelter calls in or emails medication orders, we fill them at the clinic, and then take them to the shelter.  So far it is running smoothly with what we are doing.”

Direct Relief Bolsters Texas Medical Safety Net, Expands Emergency Assistance to Haiti

FedEx Donates Emergency Airlift and Transport

Direct Relief today increased the pre-positioning of medicines and other essentials in Texas health centers in anticipation of Hurricane Ike’s projected landfall this weekend. As the ninth hurricane of the 2008 season storms through the Gulf, Direct Relief also boosted emergency aid to Haiti, reeling after Ike and other recent storms.

Tapping its $45 million medical inventory and emergency funds, Direct Relief today allocated additional prescription medicines and supplies to Texas’s nonprofit community clinics and health centers that serve as the medical safety net.  Direct Relief is coordinating with the Texas Association of Community Health Centers, the statewide organization with which Direct Relief formed a partnership three years ago following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Direct Relief is licensed by the Texas Department of State Health Services as a “Wholesale Distributor of Prescription Drugs,” which allows the organization to provide safety net clinics with needed resources in emergencies and on an ongoing basis to assist their low-income patients without insurance for medicines.

Three shipments going out tomorrow follow on the recent delivery of 18 “hurricane packs” that were pre-positioned throughout Gulf State clinics in anticipation of hurricane evacuations and the Katrina/Rita scenario in which many evacuees sought care at clinics after being unable to obtain needed medications.

While undertaking preparatory efforts in Texas, Direct Relief is also responding to the storm’s devastating effects in Haiti. Ike’s 135-mph winds and drenching rain pummeled the Caribbean nation on September 7, killing 65 people and leaving 240,000 in Gonaives homeless with most of the city under more than six feet of water. The death toll in Haiti stands at more than 600, with numbers climbing as floodwaters recede.

Direct Relief is providing urgently needed antibiotics, vaccines, oral rehydration solutions, and personal care products to treat and prevent a variety of waterborne diseases through its existing partner network in the country.

Waterborne diseases pose the greatest threat during flooding and torrential rains. Flooded sewer systems create dangerous sanitation issues, including the spread of cholera, hepatitis A, and rotavirus. Parasitic diseases, malaria, dysentery, and dengue fever thrive in standing water.

Displaced people living in shelters are particularly at risk for a variety of waterborne diseases, due to their close proximity and stress-compromised immune systems. Direct Relief is carefully compiling appropriate medicines and supplies to treat people affected by flooding in Haiti.