ReliefWeb

For public distribution
Sunday, January 17, 2010
6:00 PM, EST

OVERVIEW

- Five days after the event a comprehensive assessment of the damages is underway but not yet completed. Inter-Agency health assessment teams have started to systematically visit existing hospitals and report to the Health Cluster meetings held daily.

- On the southern peninsula outside of Port-au-Prince there are reports of damage, injuries and death. According to the Ministry of Interior and Civil Protection: Out side of Port-au-Prince there are many reported injuries and deaths:

• Leogane 1,300 injured, 581 deaths
• Petit Goave 2,000 injured
• Grand Goave 3,000 injured, 14,000 have lost their homes
• Gressier 50,000 inhabitants, 80% of houses destroyed

- PAHO/WHO is coordinating the health sector response from operation bases in Port-au-Prince and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. An operations center is also being set up in Jimaní along the Haiti Dominican Republic border.

HOSPITALS

- Due to widespread population displacement of from the capital to outlying areas, hospitals in towns such as Gonaive and San Marc as well as Jimaní are overwhelmed.

- An engineer from UNOPS is currently assessing the HUEH University Hospital in Haiti. The maternity, medical ward and dermatology are intact, but the surgical ward is damaged and cannot be used.

- Emergency medical care continues to be provided outdoors at the Hospital San Francois de Sales. Haitian medical teams are being assisted by teams from Dominican Republic.

- There is concern about the influx of injured and other displaced persons to the Dominican Republic and the north of Haiti, mainly Saint Marc.

• Injured persons are seeking health services in health centers on the border towns of the Dominican Republic. In recent days, the 20 bed hospital in Jimaní saw 2000 people, and conducted 200 major surgeries. Patients that cannot be treated are being sent/airlifted to Santo Domingo.
• The Hospital General Melenciano in Jimaní has received 18 patients. The Hospital Buen Samaritano has received 200 patients and set up four surgical rooms. Medical staff from Puerto Rico are assisting these efforts.

FIELD HOSPITALS

- Israel has set up a mobile field hospital that is now serving 60 patients. This facility has been requested to serve as a referral hospital for severely injured patients. It is fully operational.

- A Russian hospital is operational and new field hospitals will be arriving from Turkey, France, MSF, Indonesia and the USA. Additionally, the Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort is scheduled to arrive on the 22 January 2010.

- Due to the overwhelming number of offers of field hospitals, the Health Cluster has set up a separate field hospital sub-group to deal with this issue under the coordination of Friends of Haiti.

- Many open spaces that had been previously identified yesterday for setting up field hospitals were found to be occupied by those who had set up distribution sites for food or water, or were identified as helicopter landing sites, or are being used by those who have set up temporary shelter.