Overview of the International Medical Relief after Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines in 2013

November 8, 2013, Super Typhoon Haiyan Philippines landed, causing the country's casualties and property losses. As of March 14, 2014, the Philippines has resulted in 1607 people were affected, 409 people homeless, 28,689 people were injured, 6268 people were killed, 1061 missing. After the disaster occurred, the international community, with the cooperation of the Philippine government, quickly launched a comprehensive humanitarian rescue operation.

1 Overview of International Medical Rescue Actions

In this relief operation, the United Nations, the United States and other international organizations, non-governmental organizations and other countries carried out assistance in various ways. The United Nations Emergency Response Team arrived in the Philippines 12 hours after the disaster . The team is fast-moving and experienced. In the Philippines, the Disaster Assessment and Coordination Office and the Coordination Office of the Humanitarian Affairs Office were set up to actively coordinate the relief agencies to carry out disaster relief operations. Disaster relief has played an important role. More than 60 countries , including Russia, the United States, Israel, and China , as well as dozens of international organizations such as the United Nations, the European Union, the International Red Cross, and Without Borders Organization, have provided substantial medical assistance to the Philippines. As of November 18, the Philippine government announced that 87 medical teams have been active in the affected areas, where 43 international teams. As of January 27, 2014, there are 25 international medical teams in the typhoon affected areas of assistance they can provide outpatient treatment, psychological support, surgery and specialist treatment. Until March 25, 2014, there are still eight foreign medical teams to carry out aid work in the Philippines.

2 Main features and practices of international medical rescue operations

2.1 International Rescue Coordination is Orderly and Organizations Play a Role

The Philippines is an archipelagic country with many provinces affected. The international rescue coordination is mainly implemented by the Coordination Center for Logistics in Cebu City and the United Nations Field Operations Coordination Center in Tacloban City. The World Health Organization working group is located in Tacloban and Cebu City to facilitate the coordination of international medical teams. The logistics coordination center in Cebu City is operated by the relevant departments of the Philippine government and is jointly attended by its military, the US military, the United Nations and other aid organizations. The United Nations Field Operations Coordination Center in Tacloban City was led by the United Nations and supported by on-site international aid organizations. It established several branch offices in various locations. Under the coordination of the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs, a joint assessment of the disasters will be conducted. International relief organizations can obtain disaster information from the ASEAN Emergency Response Assessment Team, and satellite maps can also be obtained from the Copernican emergency map system. In the Philippine government with rescue operations are divided into temporary settlements management, rescue coordinator, early recovery, education, emergency communications, food security and agriculture, health, logistics, nutrition, social security, water and sanitation 12 points The committee is coordinated by different international agencies. The priority targets for the overall humanitarian relief and early recovery implemented by the international aid agency for the Philippines include meeting basic food needs and nutritional needs and ensuring drinking water, health care and environmental hygiene in the affected areas and temporary settlements. The United Nations Population Fund handles and coordinates the assistance and protection of 3 million women in the disaster area . UNICEF is responsible for the coordination and processing of orphaned children and other children in the identification, archiving, tracing and finding of family members. It also provides health and medical care. Nutrition, education, protection, and life support assistance; the International Red Cross provided basic medical supplies such as dressings, antibiotics, painkillers, and intravenous syringes to the affected areas in the early stages, and assisted the Philippine Red Cross in the safe handling of the bodies of the victims. And MSF only donated 200 tons of medical aid to the Philippines .

2.2 The military force of various countries remains the main force of rescue

The United States, Australia, NATO, Britain and other 20 countries and international organizations to provide substantial military assistance to the sick and wounded, including treatment, medical supplies, drinking water and food, including the Philippines, Australia, Indonesia, South Korea, the United States Air Force in many countries And the Navy provides various transportation guarantees. The U.S. Pacific Command dispatched a large-scale rescue force consisting mainly of the George Washington aircraft carrier battle group, and dispatched two medical rescue teams. The British Army sent a medical rescue team consisting of 12 medical personnel. It also provided clean water tablets and other disinfection and epidemic prevention materials for 30,000 people. The Australian army provided the Philippines with large transport aircraft and ship transportation guarantees and sent a 37- man field hospital in an emergency . Belgium sent a field hospital consisting of 35 medical personnel. Canadian Air Force in November 13 had its disaster relief by the 100-strong rapid reaction force arrived in the Philippines, as of December 15 operation ended, Canada has sent more than 300 rescue team members, patients who were treated during 6525, manufacturing And distributed 500,000 liters of drinking water . Its C-17 Global Overlord transported 46,000 lbs of emergency medical supplies from Canada to the Philippines in one round . The army on November 21 sent a hospital ship Peace Ark, admissions were wounded 2208 people, 44 cases of surgery, examined 21 victims a total of 25 points of water quality, and the Philippine side has donated medical supplies 112 box. Thanks to the active support and participation of the military forces of various countries, the medical and epidemic prevention forces of all parties can reach each disaster-hit area in a timely manner and use the wireless communication network to report on the treatment of the wounded and sick and the monitoring of the epidemic situation. The Philippines did not have a major outbreak after the typhoon. It was greatly benefited from the medical and epidemic prevention assistance provided by overseas troops.

2.3 Prevention and Control and Monitoring of Major Infectious Diseases are the Key to Disaster Relief

The health status of the typhoon-affected areas and the nutritional status of the victims are extremely uneven. The rate of immunization for children, the perinatal medical care rate for women, and the rate of treatment for tuberculosis patients are generally lower than the national average in the Philippines. The damage caused by typhoons has increased the risk of water-borne diseases, especially women and children living in evacuation centres. To this end, various relief agencies have worked closely with the Philippine Ministry of Health and government agencies to carry out surveillance and early warning of outbreaks of infectious diseases, restore water systems, provide clean drinking water and clean water, and store water equipment so that affected people can receive basic medical care. And environmental health protection. After the disaster, small outbreaks of various infectious diseases such as measles, typhus, hepatitis A, and dengue fever occurred in the short term, but after extensive efforts, a large-scale outbreak of the outbreak was controlled through vaccination and other measures. Philippines report in early January 2014, nearly 100 new cases of measles cases, World Health Organization, UNICEF and other agencies in late January 2014 jointly launched a measles vaccination campaign, were carried out vaccination for 80,000 children in the disaster area At the same time, the measures for case identification and epidemic monitoring in the affected areas have also been strengthened. The goal is to immunize 2.2 million children aged 6 months to 3 years old with measles vaccine, and record, report and supervise vaccination. The World Health Organization provided technical support for the surveillance of communicable diseases. It provided a large number of measles vaccines and assisted the vaccination campaign in the disaster area three weeks after the disaster; it also closely monitored the prevalence of dengue fever and cholera. In response to the prevalence of dengue fever outbreaks in the affected areas in January 2014 , UNICEF, WHO , Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) and the Philippine government have jointly conducted surveillance of the epidemic and jointly developed and trained emergency water samples such as diarrhoea, dengue fever, and measles. Disposal and diagnosis and treatment operation guidelines, and took targeted killing and other prevention and treatment measures. Faced with the problem of vaccine preservation, with the help of UNICEF, 50 health centers in the disaster area have installed solar refrigerators to avoid interference caused by power outages, as well as equipment and generators required for the cold chain.

2.4 Pay attention to the vulnerable groups in the disaster area to provide them with various help

Most aid agencies pay more attention to vulnerable groups such as pregnant women, breast-feeding women and children under the age of 5 years. They provide family planning services, distribute hygiene products, and organize reproductive health training such as HIV/AIDS and breast-feeding in disaster areas and how to find malnutrition. Population and intake of adequate nutrition and other training. The training of non-governmental organizations focuses on how clinical staff perform serious acute malnutrition treatment. Typhoon affected areas, about 5.9 million children in need of medical assistance, as well as 3.5 million women of childbearing age, including 250,000 pregnant women and 170,006 within months lactating women need medical assistance. On average, 122 cases of obstetric complications are added every day , and there is a large demand for obstetric aid. Relief agencies also provide nutritional support for the nearly 10,000 pregnant women, health supplies, health education and perinatal health care. As of January 20, 2014, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) to coordinate the relief agencies to provide nutritional support for the nearly 14 million children in the disaster area, provides a high-energy dry food for the children, and children with severe malnutrition transferred to provincial clinics Center for treatment. The department in 2014 February 13, the Philippine disaster area has provided 2.9 million tons of food, including 105 tons and 474 tons of special nutritional high-energy biscuits. Screening of 97,000 children for malnutrition provided vitamin A supplements to 55,300 children . At the same time, more than 230,000 school-age children in the disaster-stricken area have provided sanitation and cleaning products to prevent diarrhea and other gastrointestinal diseases.

2.5 Conduct post-disaster psychological assistance

After the disaster, a large number of people were traumatized and experienced mental disorders such as stress disorder, depression, and schizophrenia. The World Health Organization dispatched a team of psychological and spiritual assistance experts in time for disasters. According to the characteristics of different affected populations, the Philippine Ministry of Health will assist the Philippine Ministry of Health in providing psychosocial support assistance to the victims during the recovery and reconstruction period in various ways such as training, on-site guidance, and academic forums. As of February 21, 2014, UNICEF is providing psychological support for 17,000 children, relief agencies also actively assist the Philippine Department of Health to carry out post-disaster psychological assistance, carried out in more mental health training for primary care.

3 Conclusion

Although the Philippines suffered heavy losses in Typhoon Haiyan, many power supply, communications and water systems in hard-hit areas were rampant, and international humanitarian relief operations suffered from inaccessibility, poor communications, infrastructure damage, and failure of government agencies. However, the international community’s rapid assistance Next, the Philippine government actively liaised with the National Disaster Reduction Management Center, the Ministry of Social Welfare and Development, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to coordinate local agencies and international relief agencies to effectively improve the quality of medical care in the affected areas and minimize the casualties in the affected areas. Controlled the development of the epidemic of major infectious diseases.

This article comes from Disaster Medicine and Rescue, Vol. 4, November 2015.