For public distribution
Saturday, January 16, 2010
6:00 PM, EST
OVERVIEW
- PAHO/WHO Disaster Response Team has arrived in Haiti. A logistics platform has been set up in the border town of Jimaní in the Dominican Republic.
- A total of 13,000 cadavers have been collected by MINUSTAH. There is no comprehensive information on the number of injured.
HOSPITALS
- Assessments of the health facilities have started and although damage is reported to the main hospitals, lack of water and electricity are the main obstacles for their function. There has not been a comprehensive assessment done on the status of hospitals, and there is conflicting information about the status of various hospitals.
- At the moment few facilities are operational. These ones are generally run by International NGOs such as Choscal run by MSF B and MDM Canada; Military Hospital of the Argentineans and a few others.
- Makeshift health services where triage is taking place have been set up, and four places where people assemble while awaiting medical care.
FIELD HOSPITALS
- A temporary field hospital for the affected population has been set up in tents in the UN logistics base and different organizations are taking care of wounded patients, such as University of Florida and Friends of Haiti. Medical evacuations are being done to Martinique and Miami.
- This facility is overcrowded as most injured patients from Port-au-Prince are brought here. No more patients are being accepted.
- The following locations have been identified by the Ministry of Health to install foreign field hospitals: 1) Park Saint Therese in Petionville; 2) Stadium Guillome, near the Port-au-Prince cemetery; 3) Sport Stadium of Carrefour (Stad sportif de Carrefour; 4) Centre Dadadou (Delmas 3); Croix de Bouques.
Offers of field hospitals have been received, with degrees of operational capacity. The following have arrived already and are expected to be operational soon: Israel, Colombia, France, US and medical teams from Canada, Indonesia, France, US.
- Medical facilities have also been set up by various NGOs in damaged hospitals or clinics.