Emergency Operations Center Situation Report #8 - Haiti Earthquake - English | Spanish | French | Portuguese

GENERAL OVERVIEW

• A strong magnitude 5.9 aftershock (USGS) rocked Haiti this morning. Reports indicate some collapse of buildings but no loss of life.
• There are now 43 search-and-rescue teams in Haiti, made up of 1,820 rescue workers and 175 dogs searching for survivors in affected areas.
• There are more than 280 sites where people are spontaneously resettling themselves (mainly in parks and open spaces).
• CARICOM, the Caribbean Community Secretariat, is establishing a sea bridge between Kingston, Jamaica and Jacmel, Haiti, and the road is being repaired between Jacmel and Portau-Prince.
• WFP has identified four food distribution sites to serve the 14 settlement areas. On 18 January, teams were dispatched to assess the security and infrastructure needs of these sites and WFP will start distributions from them imminently.
• Water and sanitation evaluations were carried out today in four hospitals in Port- au-Prince (Isaie Jeanty hospital, Choscal Hospital, Diquini and Delmas 33).

PAHO/WHO RESPONSE

• PROMESS continues to serve as the central distribution hub for all pharmaceuticals in Haiti, where PAHO/WHO has increased its capacity to stock and deliver drugs to other agencies or organizations providing healthcare. For this purpose, they have mobilized extra staff and logistics equipment. More than 40 organizations have received drugs to date.
• Today the PROMESS warehouse received the second tranche of a major donation from the Reina Sofia Foundation. Among other technical expertise, PAHO/WHO is mobilizing pharmacists and physicians to help PROMESS operations.
• The National Commission for the Management of the Crisis set up by the Ministry of Health has requested a permanent PAHO/WHO presence in the Ministry of Health to liaise with the Health Cluster. This commission has established the following priorities:

-  Set up mobile clinics in all camps o Reinforce or establish fix health clinics
-  Field hospitals

• PAHO/WHO participated in an UNDAC assessment missions that, to date, have evaluated 5 major towns and cities.

• Many patients have been evacuated to border areas with the Dominican Republic overwhelming the health services in that area. PAHO/WHO worked with the Dominican Republic to identify places where patients recovering from surgery could be transferred in order to free up hospital beds at the General Melenciano Hospital and the Buen Samaritano Health Center. To date, several local religious organizations and orphanages have offered their grounds for this purpose.
• A team of epidemiologists is on its way to Port-au-Prince to assess communicable diseases; PAHO/WHO distributed a form to capture daily health surveillance information.
• Together with the government of the Dominican Republic, PAHO/WHO mobilized three sanitary engineers to evaluate the hospitals and temporary shelters in Jimaní.
• PAHO/WHO has compiled and mapped information regarding the status of health facilities in Haiti after the earthquake. At this moment there is information on damage and operational status for 25 health facilities and field hospitals, mainly in Port-au-Prince and the Ouest department. View the map at http://ais.paho.org/phip/viz/haiti_healthfacilities.asp

HEALTH CLUSTER COORDINATION

See the daily Health Cluster Bulletin at www.paho.org/disasters

IDENTIFIED NEEDS

• Logistic support (specifically provision of medical supplies
  
• Post-surgical follow up of the patients
• Gaps in water and sanitation
• A network of mobile clinics for areas where the population has resettled
• Orthopedic surgeons (relevant for one week more)
• Nurses
• Security for mobile health teams and health posts
• Healthcare waste management

For further information on the situation in Haiti, please go to www.paho.org/disasters and http://twitter.com/pahoeoc