[cindnet] Re: Recent Disasters - HTML version
- From: shalju gupta <drshalugupta@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: cindnet@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005 14:10:28 +0100 (BST)
Thanks for the information.
It is really tragic to have repeated Disasters.
Please keep us informed.
Thank You
Dr.Shalu Gupta
Lecturer Pediatrics
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Mark Cheren
> To: Children in Disasters Network Listserve
> Sent: Friday, October 14, 2005 11:26 AM
> Subject: [cindnet] Recent Disasters - HTML
> version
>
>
> In this Issue of the Children in Disasters
> Network Listserve
>
>
> 1.. A letter from Karen concerning the most
> recent disasters
> 2.. A note re the Guatemala Disaster from
> Alfredo Garcia reprinted from the Global Healthcare
> Consortium Listserve
>
> 3.. Proposed program on International
> Pediatric Chat to be presented by the C in D
> Network:
> What Have We Learned From
> Recent Disasters? An On Line Discussion
>
> (about children in disasters practice and training)
>
>
>
__________________________________________________________
>
>
>
>
> 1. Letter from Karen (Dr. Karen Olness, of the
> Case School of Medicine and Health Frontiers) sent
> out on our Children in Disasters Listserve
>
> Dear colleagues,
>
> Once again we are facing major disasters--one in
> Pakistan and one in Guatemala. I sent a query to
> Dr. Ashfaq Khan, former Dean of the Peshawar Medical
> School and member of the Standing Committee of the
> International Pediatric Association. He organized
> the disaster management training course which was
> held at the Peshawar Medical School in early 2002.
> He responded that he has handed over the names and
> addresses of doctors and paramedics whom we trained
> in Peshawar to the concerned authorities in the
> N.W.F.P. and Afghan consultate in Peshawar. Quite a
> number of those trained were Afghan doctors. Dr.
> Khan mentioned that his brother in law, Professor
> Sohail Sahibzada (a surgeon) and his team are busy
> round the clock at Abbottabad where the maximum
> number of casualties have been received. Field
> hospitals have been set up in local disaster areas
> and the very serious patients are being transferred
> to the tertiary care hospital. Dr. Khan said that
> aid is getting to the affected areas and that he is
> concerned on how they will coordinate the activities
> of so many NGOs, both local and international
> agencies, who have arrived at the scene. He noted
> that it will take a very long time to rehabilitate
> all the displaced people.
>
> We have also sent you a description of the
> situation in Guatemala from a physician who has been
> active in the Global Medical Education Consortium.
>
> If anyone on this listserve is currently working
> in these two disaster areas, please keep us updated
> and also make recommendations about what help is
> needed.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Karen Olness
>
>
>
> 2. Message from Alfredo Garcia, MD, MPH
>
> Wed, 12 Oct 2005 via Sara E Pirtle
> Subject: Guatemala mudslide report from Alfredo
> Garcia
> Sender: "A list for the Global Health Education
> Consortium."
>
> Dear GHEC friends, GHEC member Alfredo Garcia,
> who was my co-chair for the 2004 IHMEC conference in
> Guatemala, sent the following first-hand report to a
> Central American listserv about the recent mudslide
> devastation in Guatemala. Alfredo wrote the report
> from San Lucas Toliman, which some of you remember
> from the site visits held on the last day of the
> conference. San Lucas is the location that UNMC
> uses for the volunteer medical work portion of our
> Medical Spanish/International Health Courses in
> Guatemala. It is the nearest town to Santiago
> Atitlan, the area most damaged by the recent
> flooding and mudslides. All students who have been
> through our programs know San Lucas well, and most
> of them have visited Santiago Atititlan during one
> of the planned field trips. Sara Pirtle
> Please respond to
> jagarcia@xxxxxxxx m.gt
>
>
> Dear Centamers:
>
> I'm writing to you from San Lucas Tolimán,
> Guatemala. This is the nearest town to Santiago
> Atitlán, on the Southern shore of Lake Atitlán.
>
> I came from Guatemala City by chicken bus
> (didn't dare to bring my car, not knowing if I would
> make it) and had to transfer three times to ride in
> the
> back of pick-up trucks that are driving people
> to the places where the road was cut off. The last
> two cut-offs were somewhat hairy to cross, one I had
>
> to ford the river walking over a flatened-out
> log, and the second cutoff meant having to walk
> about half a mile in knee-high mud. Still, I made
> it
> in about four hours to San Lucas (two hours
> being the regular time, in my car, so it's not so
> bad).
>
> With some local colaborators (rural health
> promoters, teachers, etc), we have been going to
> Santiago Atitlan, following instructions given by
> local
> health authorities, to provide medical care to
> refugees in one of the largest shelters, the
> Catholic Parish House. In this shelter there are
> close to 1100 people from Panabaj, the community
> that was affected by the mudslide. Estimates of the
> final death toll vary (nobody really knows until
> they do a census, which the local high school
> seniors are doing now).
>
> The scene in Panabaj is surreal: a long
> mudslide -miles long- which came down from the
> volcano, 20 to 6 ft high, at 2 am, sounding "like a
> jet
> plane" according to eyewitnesses. It brought
> with it, huge boulders, enormous tree trunks, and
> crashed over houses and buildings, many of which
> were completely buried along with their occupants.
> Last I heard, the local authorities had decided to
> stop digging for bodies and declare the whole place
> a gravesite.
>
> All together, there are about 5,000 refugees
> from the mudslide area. I heard today, from the
> health authorities, that there are 61 shelters, some
>
> with over 1,000 people. The local people are
> being amazing and outstanding with their solidarity,
> providing home to friends and relatives, staffing
> the shelters, donating stuff to feed them and
> clothe them. People in shelters lost everything
> they had in the world.
>
> I noticed, during these past three days of
> giving "consultas", that most of the disease that we
> are seeing is best described in the local way,
> "nervios". People are just freaked-out. Ladies
> complain of not being able to sleep, men complain of
> gastritis. Today, on my last day, though, I started
> seeing more patients sick with infectious diseases,
> like kids with diarrhea, otitis, mild cases of the
> flu, etc. Hopefully, it will not get worse. I
> expect that, over the next few days or weeks, if the
> people living in shelters don't get clean water and
> decent sanitation, there might be an epidemic of
> say, rotavirus (an intestinal virus that gives
> copious diarrhea to babies) or even worse, cholera
> or whooping cough.
>
> The road from San Lucas to Santiago is passable.
> There was only one small slide that has been
> cleaned. Access from the lowlands to Santiago was
> cut off from the highway by mudslides and a flash
> flood from a river. They're restoring passage today
> (tuesday) with Bailey bridges set by the uatemalan
> army corps of engineers and the ministry in charge
> of roadways.
>
> I expect a flood of aid from Guatemala City
> today. There have been very few trucks to Santiago,
> and the only aid they got so far was by helicopter
> flights. Today, there are lines of trucks
> waiting for the bridge to be open, so they can go to
> Santiago.
>
> I'm going back to Guatemala City today. I'll
> return to Santiago in a week or so with -I hope-
> needed drugs and vaccines. I hope that my dire
> predictions of a epidemic will not come true.
>
> Saludos,
>
> Alfredo Garcia, MD, MPH
>
>
>
>
>
> 3. Proposed Program on International Pediatric
> Chat to be presented by the C in D Network:
>
> What Have We Learned From Recent Disasters? An
> On Line Discussion (about children in
> disasters practice and training)
>
> We are hoping to be able to convene several
> members of our network to talk about this important
> topic. What can we learn from the tsunami last
> December through the mudslides in Guatemal? How can
> we use that learning to improve our work in these
> situations and how should it impact the training we
> provide to prepare colleagues for this work? We are
> anticipating this session will take place sometime
> in November or December '05
>
>
> 4. If anyone on this listserve is currently
> working in these two disaster areas, please keep us
> updated and also make recommendations about what
> help is needed.
>
>
>
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>
Dr. Shalu Gupta
Lecturer pediatrics,
Deptt. of Pediatrics.
I.M.S. , B.H.U.
Varanasi-221005
U.P.
Ph no:09935683068
E mail:drshalugupta@xxxxxxxxxxx
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