In Texas and Louisiana, more than 20,000 evacuees remain in shelters, as debris clogs roads, homes have been destroyed, and infrastructure is being repaired. Interrupted water service and nonfunctioning sewer systems have caused health concerns, especially in Galveston and the greater Houston area. In Louisiana, almost 25,000 homes have been flooded, and Gov. Bobby Jindal reported last Wednesday in a letter to President Bush that the state’s infrastructure had sustained $1 billion in damage.

To help those affected by the hurricanes, Direct Relief has provided ongoing shipments—a total of 30 since August 29—of urgently needed medicines and supplies such as antibiotics, analgesics, chronic medications, wound-care supplies, and personal care products. For people living in a shelter, even shampoo and soap can bring comfort, and good hygiene helps prevent disease transmission.

“These are 24- to 48-hour shelters,” said Lori Hooks of the Texas Association of Community Health Centers, “but people will be staying there for weeks.” Hooks reported that clinics and health centers are providing services at shelters and assessing damage to their own facilities, 12 of which were closed as of Friday. TACHC’s goal is to reinstate care at clinics as fast as possible; generators and mobile units are being brought in to help bring facilities back to operation.

In Galveston, a mobile unit clinic opening Monday will help take pressure off the crowded local hospital emergency room, though all pharmaceuticals will need to be replaced, and water, sewer, and power services are not up yet. The executive director of three clinic sites in Port Arthur—an East Texas town closed due to massive damage—has been allowed to tour her locations to assess damage this weekend.

“The biggest problems are standing water and no electricity,” said Hooks. “Mosquitoes are an issue, and it’s going to get really bad in the next few days as the weather heats up. People run out of medications when health centers are closed. And the longer people go without refrigeration, the more likely they are to eat spoiled food, which causes illness.”

Direct Relief also made a cash grant of $150,000 earlier this month to the National Association of Community Health Centers to help clinics buy emergency medicines to treat hurricane-affected populations. Health center needs range from medicines and supplies to funds to replace computer systems damaged by flooding.

At the start of hurricane season, Direct Relief positioned 18 hurricane preparedness packs throughout the Gulf Coast. These packs contain enough medical material for one site to treat 100 people for a 72-hour period.

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With widespread power outages and residents encouraged to stay in shelters due to extreme flooding and other damage, health centers in Louisiana and Texas are working around significant challenges following the two hurricanes. Direct Relief’s emergency response team expects to send several more shipments of specifically requested critical medical aid this week.

Health centers are treating evacuees for chronic conditions like asthma, diabetes, and hypertension. Clinicians are also seeing a notable increase in patients being treated for mental health issues, understandable in the face of great personal loss.

According to U.S. Census data released August 2008, 24.4 percent of people in Texas are uninsured—the highest percentage in the U.S. Health centers and community clinics serve this vulnerable population, and are a key resource in emergency response.

Two members of Direct Relief’s Domestic Programs staff are visiting Gulf State clinics this week to help assess needs and coordinate response efforts along with the Texas Association of Community Health Centers. Direct Relief is licensed by the Texas Department of State Health Services as a “Wholesale Distributor of Prescription Drugs,” which means it can provide safety-net clinics with needed resources in emergencies and on an ongoing basis.

Direct Relief partners in the region have weathered the storms to varying degrees. Clinic director Clark Moore of Ubi Caritas in Beaumont, Texas, had to evacuate to Austin during Ike, and returned to assess damage yesterday. “Other than the drugs we have lost, we are OK,” Moore reported. “Our new clinic, which was built to with stand 150 mph winds, actually did.” Ubi Caritas plans to reopen this coming Monday, though, like much of the state, it is currently without power or sewer services.

“We have 5,000 to 6,000 Hurricane Ike folks from Beaumont here in town,” said John English of Bethesda Clinic in Tyler, Texas. “Looks like they will be here for the next several weeks. Many are at shelters but they send them out for care, or call for supplies when needed.”

In July, 18 hurricane preparedness packs were sent to qualified health centers in the Gulf States; they have proven useful during this active hurricane season.

“We are using the medications and supplies that you sent for hurricane season,” reported Janet Mentesane, of Martin Luther King Health Center in Shreveport, Louisiana, as Ike was bearing down last Saturday. “The government-run shelter calls in or emails medication orders, we fill them at the clinic, and then take them to the shelter. So far, it is running smoothly.”

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Four sites will each receive specifically requested materials on Tuesday via overnight airfreight, generously donated by FedEx:

• Amistad Community Health Center, Corpus Christi, TX
• Texas Association of Community Health Centers (TACHC) Distribution Center, Austin, TX
• Primary Health Services Center, Monroe, LA
• United Community Health Center, Eunice, LA

Longtime corporate donors Abbott, BD, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Covidien, CVS, GlaxoSmithKline, Henry Schein, Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies, Matrixx, Merck, Miltex, Nexxus, sanofi-aventis, and Schering-Plough have given their product for use at these sites.

In addition to continued coordination with TACHC and the National Association of Community Health Centers, Direct Relief is working with the Lone Star Association of Charitable Clinics (LSACC), which represents 57 clinics throughout the state. LSACC is assisting Direct Relief in obtaining the medical material needs of its membership.

Since September 1, Direct Relief has supplied its medical safety-net partners in Texas and Louisiana with nearly $400,000 in medical material aid to assist their response to Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

Two members of Direct Relief’s domestic programs team will arrive in Louisiana on Sunday, and will be surveying clinic sites and evacuation centers throughout the week. Many evacuation shelters set up for Gustav are now serving those affected by Ike.

One such shelter in Shreveport, Louisiana, is being served by the Martin Luther King Health Center, a recipient of one of the 18 hurricane preparedness packs Direct Relief sent to safety-net clinics throughout the Gulf in July.  According to e-mail messages from Janet Mentesane, executive director of the center, “The shelter calls in or emails medication orders, we fill them at the clinic, and then take them to the shelter.  So far it is running smoothly with what we are doing.”

The post Additional Medical Aid Set for Arrival at Clinics, Shelters appeared first on Direct Relief.

Tapping its $45 million medical inventory and emergency funds, Direct Relief today allocated additional prescription medicines and supplies to Texas’s nonprofit community clinics and health centers that serve as the medical safety net.  Direct Relief is coordinating with the Texas Association of Community Health Centers, the statewide organization with which Direct Relief formed a partnership three years ago following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Direct Relief is licensed by the Texas Department of State Health Services as a “Wholesale Distributor of Prescription Drugs,” which allows the organization to provide safety net clinics with needed resources in emergencies and on an ongoing basis to assist their low-income patients without insurance for medicines.

Three shipments going out tomorrow follow on the recent delivery of 18 “hurricane packs” that were pre-positioned throughout Gulf State clinics in anticipation of hurricane evacuations and the Katrina/Rita scenario in which many evacuees sought care at clinics after being unable to obtain needed medications.

While undertaking preparatory efforts in Texas, Direct Relief is also responding to the storm’s devastating effects in Haiti. Ike’s 135-mph winds and drenching rain pummeled the Caribbean nation on September 7, killing 65 people and leaving 240,000 in Gonaives homeless with most of the city under more than six feet of water. The death toll in Haiti stands at more than 600, with numbers climbing as floodwaters recede.

Direct Relief is providing urgently needed antibiotics, vaccines, oral rehydration solutions, and personal care products to treat and prevent a variety of waterborne diseases through its existing partner network in the country.

Waterborne diseases pose the greatest threat during flooding and torrential rains. Flooded sewer systems create dangerous sanitation issues, including the spread of cholera, hepatitis A, and rotavirus. Parasitic diseases, malaria, dysentery, and dengue fever thrive in standing water.

Displaced people living in shelters are particularly at risk for a variety of waterborne diseases, due to their close proximity and stress-compromised immune systems. Direct Relief is carefully compiling appropriate medicines and supplies to treat people affected by flooding in Haiti.

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