The latest edition of the Disasters newsletter is focused on Safe Hospitals. The Plan of Action on Safe Hospitals, signed by the Ministers of Health of the Americas, calls for having safer health facilities by 2015. Although we still have three years, we should revisit some issues relevant to this topic, and take action now to ensure success. Read the latest issue of the newsletter.

French version and summaries in English, French and Spanish now available!

This book presents lessons to be learned from Haiti with the aim of improving the health sector’s response in major, sudden-onset disasters in the future. It also identifies opportunities provided by the disaster for making significant changes in health services in Haiti. One of the key lessons of the Haiti tragedy is that coordination can only be effective where national authorities are equipped to assume leadership and establish relief and recovery priorities.

Japanese version now available! 

Management of the dead is one of the most difficult aspects of disaster response. It has profound and long-lasting consequences for survivors and communities. Globally, disasters claim thousands of lives each year. However, care of the deceased is often overlooked in disaster planning. This Field Manual for First Responders, available in English, French, Spanish and Japanese, presents simple recommendations for non-specialists to manage the recovery, basic identification, storage and disposal of dead bodies following disasters. It also makes suggestions about providing support to family members and communicating with the public and the media.

So far important results have been achieved in Haiti with funding provided by the international community, including a decrease in the number of cholera cases and the provision of health services to people living in displacement camps.

Among the activities related with the response to the emergency, the distribution of medicines has been made for the treatment of 180,670 severe cases and 512,680 mild cases of cholera in one year since the beginning of the emergency. PAHO/WHO also helped develop and distribute over 100,000 posters and 250,000 laminated pages with guidance on cholera prevention and treatment.