On 8 November 2013 Super Typhoon Haiyan (known locally as Yolanda) swept across the Philippines affecting millions of lives. As international assistance began to pour in, the World Health Organization was one of the first agencies on the ground. The WHO worked with the Philippine Department of Health (DOH) as co-leads for the health cluster. Together the organisations began coordinating over 150 foreign medical teams and more than 500 tonnes of medical supplies and equipment that arrived in response.
The health priorities came in four waves. In the first month the health response was focused on coordinating the national and foreign medical teams to treat injuries and attend to pregnant women and newborn children. The second wave was preventing a disease outbreak: WHO worked with the DOH to activate disease surveillance systems across the affected areas, organise the mass immunisation of children against measles and polio and clean up debris and prevent the spread of diseases such as dengue and typhoid.
Within three months a third wave of health needs was the necessity to treat Non-Communicable Diseases such as heart attacks and diabetes: patients had lost medicines or were experiencing new complications due to the stress of the typhoon and its aftermath. Six months on and a fourth wave was the need to address mental health as communities struggled to restore their lives. WHO worked with DOH to provide psyscho-social first aid in the first weeks and months after the typhoon. At six months mental health problems can and did increase (a trend WHO witnessed in the aftermath of the Tsnunami in 2001) requiring further specialised training for key health workers to respond.
As the health cluster moved from the humanitarian response towards recovery, foreign medical teams began to leave and temporary health facilities started to transition from tents to buildings. Approaching the one year anniversary of Typhoon Yolanda, there has been a rise in births – a trend that often occurs after an emergency. With each new life comes much joy and also a further increase in the demands for health care now and in the future. This is a fifth wave of health needs: WHO has worked with the DOH to pinpoint where it is vital to invest funds to rebuild health services based on factors such as shifts in population size and location.
Over the past 12 months WHO has worked with DOH and health partners to rehabilitate facilities, donate equipment and scale up health services. To date there has been no major disease outbreak in the Haiyan affected areas while services such as reproductive health care, mental health provision and water quality testing are now available in areas that previous had none. To ensure future resilience requires a robust health system with universal access to health care: a key DOH priority known as “Kalusugan Pangkalahatan (KP)”.
“Typhoon Yolanda was a natural disaster of enormous proportions. It demanded we all rise to the challenge and work together to provide immediate health care and improve health services for the long term. We are proud of the work that we have done alongside the government of the Philippines and health cluster partners and today we continue to support communities to recover. We are grateful to all the donors who have supported our work. Together we aim to build back a better, more resilient health system for the future. Together we are putting health at the heart of healing.” said WHO Country Representative in the Philippines Dr Julie Hall.