Direct Relief Aid to Nepal and India Supports Emergency Response

September 24, 2008 

Widespread flooding in India and Nepal has displaced millions; Direct Relief International is sending more than $1 million in medical material aid to help vulnerable populations living in temporary shelters.

The shipments of critical aid—antibiotics, analgesics, wound-care supplies, and more— are being delivered to two longtime Direct Relief partners who have effectively responded to previous emergencies, including the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. The delivery for Nepal was air freighted on September 18, and the India delivery is schedule to depart later this week.

Family Health International in Nepal, which supports 40 local organizations to provide reproductive health services, shifts its focus to relief work when an emergency strikes.
Southern India-based Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS) has sent its state-of-the-art telemedicine van all the way to Bihar in the north where the bulk of relief camps are located. The telemedicine van works as a sophisticated mobile medical clinic and is outfitted with diagnostic equipment and satellite connection linked to medical experts, which makes it an invaluable resource for remote populations who wouldn’t otherwise have access to quality medical care.

The AIMS team reports that its teams working in relief camps are seeing about 500 patients a day. With its mobile unit, it plans to move deeper into affected areas as soon as the waters recede. It also plans to set up a small hospital in Bihar to provide medical services to flood-affected people over the next few months.

About 1 million people are still displaced and 300,000 are living in crowded shelters, where sanitation is compromised. Clean drinking water is scarce, and damp conditions put evacuees at high risk for waterborne diseases. Acute diarrhea can be fatal if not treated, especially among vulnerable populations like children and pregnant women. Other health concerns include upper respiratory infections, helimenthic infections, viral fevers, and malnourishment leading to severe anemia.

After a dam on the Koshi River broke August 18, floodwaters submerged villages, destroying many thousands of homes and 250,000 acres of farmland in Bihar. The annual summer monsoon season, which runs from June to early September, only added to the deluge.

Direct Relief Providing Emergency Aid to Flood-Devastated India and Nepal

Direct Relief is providing emergency humanitarian aid to areas in India and Nepal experiencing the worst flooding in 50 years. More than 3 million people are in the flooded areas.

Annual flooding caused by the monsoon season, which begins in June, was compounded when the Koshi Dam in Southern Nepal broke on August 18, causing extreme flooding downstream in the Bihar region of northern India. In Nepal, an estimated 85,000 people are displaced and living in schools and colleges. In the Bihar region of India, which is largely under water, hundreds of rural villages have been destroyed, 550,000 people have been displaced, 400,000 await rescue, and 3 million have been affected. Bihar State’s Chief Minister Nitish Kumar anticipates that the crisis will likely remain serious for several weeks.

Direct Relief is equipping medical teams and is working with longtime partner organizations that report a rising incidence of gastroenteritis, respiratory infections, skin infections, fevers, and diarrheal disease, which health workers report is becoming an epidemic in the crowded camps due to poor sanitation.

Waterborne diseases are among the greatest health concerns during floods, as floodwaters disrupt sanitation systems and spread contaminated water. Standing water harbors parasites, bacteria, and mosquitos that transmit malaria, all of which pose a significant health threat, especially to children, the elderly, and those with weakened immune systems.

Direct Relief is tapping its existing $45 million inventory and has contacted corporate donors to help supply needed medicines including antibiotics, oral rehydration solutions, antidiarrheals, wound-care supplies, vitamins and nutritional supplements (many people are malnourished), and medical supplies.

Our partners in India and Nepal have mobilized medical teams to provide care to the victims of flooding.

Direct Relief’s partner in India, the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre (AIMS) in Cochin, Kerala State, has deployed more than 20 staff, an ambulance, and the state-of-the-art telemedicine van that Direct Relief purchased in 2007 to help treat people in remote-area shelters. Medicine stores, already depleted before the floods, are at critically low levels. “For us to meet the demand, we will be needing help desperately,” reported Dr. Raghavendra of AIMS.

In Nepal, our longstanding partner Family Health International (FHI) provides health services in its clinics, which normally focus on HIV/AIDS and reproductive health. It supports more than 40 local organizations and healthcare providers in country.