NEW: Florence is now a category 4 hurricane. Data from a NOAA Hurricane Hunter indicate that Florence has continued to rapidly strengthen and has maximum sustained winds near 130 mph (195 km/h) and a minimum central pressure of 946 mb (27.93 inches) https://t.co/tW4KeGdBFb pic.twitter.com/wfLt6fJPl2

— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) September 10, 2018

Direct Relief has offered support to more than 200 healthcare partners that are currently in the storm’s projected path to coordinate potential relief efforts. At the start of hurricane season, hurricane-specific medicines and supplies were also prepositioned in locations serving high-risk areas along the coast and can be opened by health centers should they be needed.

Hurricane preparedness is central to Direct Relief’s emergency efforts in the United States, and began with the organization’s response to Hurricane Katrina in 2004.

Essential medicines and supplies are delivered to secure locations near hurricane-prone areas prior to hurricane season each year. The organization also keeps a stock of emergency medical supplies at its headquarters for high-risk areas should the need for additional support arise.

Financial support from Direct Relief’s long-time partner, FedEx, supported the delivery of hurricane-specific medicines and supplies donated by the following companies:

3M; Abbott; Alcon; Apotex; BD; Boehringer Ingelheim; Lilly; Merck; Omron; Pfizer; Sanofi.

Direct Relief is closely monitoring Hurricane Florence and will continue to provide information as the situation evolves.

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The airlift contained nearly 40 tons of medications and medical essentials, amounting to $20.6 million (wholesale) in donated medications, nutritionals and medical supplies. More than two dozen healthcare companies provided these items, which included extensive quantities of intravenous solutions and prescription medications for acute conditions and chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension.

“The airlift’s arrival reflects the ongoing concern and support for Puerto Ricans from thousands of people, including those at the dozens of companies who have stepped forward to help,” said Direct Relief President and CEO Thomas Tighe. “The need and importance of the medical and health resources for people who need them is obvious, but the fact that they are here only because people from all walks took some action is particularly meaningful during the holiday season.”

The following companies contributed donations of medicine, supplies and funding for the flight:
3M, Abbott, AbbVie, ABF Freight, Alcon Laboratories, Inc., Amgen Foundation, Ansell Healthcare, Baxter International Inc., Bayer, BD, Boehringer Ingelheim Cares Foundation, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Colgate Oral Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories LTD., Eli Lilly and Company, Essential Oxygen, GSK, Henry Schein, Inc., Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Kaleo Pharma, Mylan, Nephron Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer, Prestige Brands, Sagent Pharmaceuticals, Sundial Brands, Teva Pharmaceuticals, USA, Trividia Health, Vaseline, and We Care Solar.

“Amgen Foundation is proud to support Direct Relief’s tireless work to meet the ongoing health needs of Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria,” said Eduardo Cetlin, president of the Amgen Foundation. “Direct Relief continues to play a critical role in fulfilling the need for medical resources following the storm, and our support of their efforts reflects our commitment to the people.”

Since Hurricane Maria made landfall on Sept. 20, Direct Relief’s private assistance efforts have totaled over 218 tons (423,644 lbs) of specifically requested medical essentials valued at more than $52 million wholesale to bolster the health system and enable care for Puerto Rico’s residents. Direct Relief has provided these resources via 181 deliveries to more than 50 nonprofit health centers, public health facilities, emergency medical teams, and locally run nonprofit organizations focused on diabetes, vaccinations, and women’s health throughout Puerto Rico.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10155754508324346.1073741869.6030179345&type=1&l=288d409c9e

The post Direct Relief Airlifts 79,365 lbs of Emergency Medical Aid to Puerto Rico appeared first on Direct Relief.

The Direct Relief-chartered MD-11 cargo jet contained $21 million (wholesale) in donated medical resources from 44 companies (full list of companies below), including extensive quantities of intravenous solutions and prescription medications for acute conditions and chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension that can rapidly become medical emergencies if not managed. 

“This airlift will go a long way towards helping our fellow Americans in Puerto Rico, and I am eternally grateful to Direct Relief and all of the organizations involved,” said President Bill Clinton, 42nd President of the United States, and founder and board chair of the Clinton Foundation. “Their efforts are a reminder that when so many people need our help, our common humanity matters even more.”

The Clinton Foundation has supported Direct Relief’s work for years, including the recovery efforts after the 2010 Haiti earthquake and the response to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa in 2014. In the response to the Caribbean hurricanes this year, the Clinton Foundation has helped to coordinate and advise the team at Direct Relief.

Businesses Step Up to Fill Resource Gap

Direct Relief works with dozens of healthcare companies’ philanthropic arms on an ongoing basis to address public health needs and humanitarian crises across the globe and in all 50 U.S. states.  This private philanthropic support from businesses, as well as philanthropic support from individuals, foundations, and organizations has enabled a massively stepped-up response to assist in Puerto Rico, where health services have been severely constricted by the extensive damage caused by Hurricane Maria.

44 companies joined in filling specific requests that Direct Relief received from nonprofit health centers, government facilities, and private hospitals in Puerto Rico – all of which have been struggling to restore and expand services to care for the island’s more than 3 million residents.

“Direct Relief has been a wonderful partner for Eli Lilly and Company,” said Rob Smith, senior director of corporate responsibility and president of the Eli Lilly and Company Foundation.  “We have worked together to get insulin to those impacted by the devastating effects of Hurricane Maria.  Lilly could not ask for a more capable, responsive, and compassionate partner.  We are so grateful for all of the things Direct Relief is doing to help the great people of Puerto Rico recover from this terrible disaster.”

The medicines and supplies on the flight were donated by the following companies:

3M; Abbott; AbbVie; Alcon; Allergan plc; Amneal Pharmaceuticals; Apotex Inc.; AstraZeneca; Baxter International Inc.; Bayer; BD; Boehringer Ingelheim Cares Foundation; Bristol-Myers Squibb; Cera Products, Inc.; Cipla; Coola Suncare; CVS; DayOne Response; Ethicon; GSK; Henry Schein, Inc.; Integra LifeSciences; InTouch Health; Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson; Kaléo; LifeScan; Magno-Humphries Labs; Medtronic; Merck & Co., Inc.; Mylan; Nephron Pharmaceuticals Corporation; Noble Laboratories, Inc.; Novartis; Pfizer Inc.; Prestige Brands; Sagent Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Sanofi Foundation for NA; Sappo Hill Soapworks; Starbucks; Teva Pharmaceuticals, USA; Trividia Health; Vaseline; Wisconsin Pharmacal Company. 

Responding to an Unprecedented Hurricane Season

Today’s airlift follows several weeks of smaller-scale airlifts and hand-carried medications and emergency medical resources to dozens of Puerto Rico’s nonprofit health centers and medical teams organized by the Puerto Rico Department of Health.

Among the critical items has been 565 vials of blood-clotting factor for children with hemophilia, 15,600 vials of insulin, 35 pre-kitted emergency medical packs containing a broad range of Rx medications and supplies, as well as 1500 solar lights and over 4000 bottles of insect repellant to protect against Zika virus.

Direct Relief’s response in Puerto Rico has been concurrent with extensive responses to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma that preceded Maria.

Since Hurricane Harvey’s landfall on August 25, Direct Relief has sent 148 tons of medications, vaccines, and medical supplies valued at $64.7 million (wholesale) and including 19 million defined daily doses of Rx medications delivered via 560 emergency shipments to 143 partner organizations in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico, USVI and seven Caribbean countries.

In addition, Direct Relief has provided and committed financial support in the form of grants totaling over $2.7 million to 43 nonprofit health centers and clinics and their primary care associations in Texas, Florida, and Puerto Rico.

The post 76-Ton Airlift of Medicine and Medical Supplies Lands in Puerto Rico   appeared first on Direct Relief.

More than 1 million people in Haiti are still in need due to the hurricane, and disease remains rampant, with almost 4,000 cholera cases reported since Oct. 4.

Direct Relief was quick to respond to healthcare partners after the storm and will continue to do so through the recovery.

Financial Summary

Direct Relief received more than 3,000 Hurricane Matthew-designated financial contributions totaling $827,962; including pledges, the total increases to $1,071,266.

Direct Relief recognizes that the generous supporters who pledged and gave more than $1 million in response to Hurricane Matthew did so with the express intent that their contributions benefit people affected by the storm.

In accepting funds for Hurricane Matthew, Direct Relief understands that both those who contributed — and the people for whose benefit the contributions were made — deserve to know, in detail, how Direct Relief is using these funds.

*Direct Relief does not rely on government funding.

The Response

As the world’s attention shifts, Direct Relief remains committed to supporting the needs of local healthcare providers in Haiti and the U.S.

United States

Direct Relief shipped $1.3 million worth of supplies to impacted communities in the U.S. after Matthew. Five tons of medicines and medical supplies were sent in 29 different shipments.

Before the storm made landfall, Direct Relief had prepositioned emergency medical modules in the hurricane’s path. Two were opened after the storm, one at the Roanoke Chowan Community Health Center in North Carolina, and another at the Franklin C. Fetter Health Care Network in South Carolina.

Each U.S.–bound pack contains enough medicines and supplies to treat 100 patients for three to five days after a hurricane hits.

Haiti

Roadways and bridges were washed away by the storm, and some of the hardest-hit communities in the southwestern part of the country also proved the most difficult to access. In the following weeks, Direct Relief used any means possible to transport aid, including by helicopters and ships.

Since Oct. 4, Direct Relief delivered $10 million worth of medicines and medical supplies to Haiti – nearly 20 tons. That included more than half a million daily doses of medication.

Material Support

Below is a list of companies that contributed medical resources to the response.

Looking Forward

Cholera persists as a life-threatening force in the country, and Direct Relief will continue to supply partners with supplies to treat this preventable, but deadly, disease. Direct Relief is continuing to deliver shipments of oral rehydration salts, IV equipment and other needed supplies.

The next delivery is scheduled to arrive in the coming days with more than 500,000 water purification sachets. Each sachet can clean 10 liters of drinking water. In total, the shipment will result in nearly 1.5 million gallons of safe drinking water.

The shipment will also contain oral rehydration salts, which can be mixed with the purified water to restore the electrolytes of a dehydrated person.

The post Hurricane Matthew: The Response Continues appeared first on Direct Relief.

Backed by the generosity of private and corporate supporters, Direct Relief remains committed to making quality healthcare viable for the long-term in Haiti – a country where Direct Relief has worked for almost 50 years.

Challenges persist, and progress is measured, but the unwavering support from people and companies has allowed Direct Relief to sustain its support to Haiti. Direct Relief’s work includes equipping new surgical facilities, ensuring rehabilitation services are available and provide medical resources to local health care providers treating people in need.

In 2015, Direct Relief’s work in Haiti included the following initiatives:

• The launch of a cervical cancer and training program in Haiti: Haiti has one of the highest cervical cancer rates in the world. In partnership with Basic Health International (BHI), Direct Relief launched a cervical cancer screening and training program to reduce the incidence of this disease in Haitian women. Over three week-long training delegations, more than 1,500 women were screened. Additionally, about two dozen local health care staff were trained to screen and treat cervical cancer in the last year.

• Restoring sight to Haitians with impaired vision: More than 100,000 people in Haiti have improved vision with help from a collaboration formed in 2012 between Alcon Laboratories, the Haitian Society of Ophthalmologists, and Direct Relief. The joint program provides cataract and glaucoma surgeries and other essential eye care procedures – free-of-charge – to thousands of people who are blind or have impaired vision in Haiti.

• Responding to the ongoing cholera epidemic: Since being reintroduced to Haiti in October 2010, the cholera epidemic has killed more than 8,000 people and affected 600,000. Outbreaks occur especially during the rainy season, which lasts from May through October. Last year, Hopital Albert Schweitzer Haiti noticed an outbreak in late July and requested assistance from Direct Relief. More than 600 gallons of bleach and 200 buckets with spigots were sent to help prevent the disease from spreading.

• Providing continued medical assistance: Since the earthquake, Direct Relief has delivered more than $180 million* in medicines and medical supplies, including more than 125 ocean freight containers. These supplies helped people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford health care.

• Funding a nursing residency program: Direct Relief provided $200,000 to Healing Hands for Haiti to help them fulfill their mission of creating a Rehabilitation Nursing Residency program. This program will help provide the essential theoretical and practical knowledge required to provide comprehensive rehabilitation nursing services in a variety of settings. These include acute hospital, in-patient rehab centers, skilled facilities, home health and community-based.

To see where the aid has gone in Haiti since the 2010 earthquake, view the distribution map here:

*Values are updated on a daily basis on Direct Relief’s Aid Map

The post Committed to Improving Health in Haiti, Four Years After the Quake appeared first on Direct Relief.

With her husband slowly recovering from an accident and unable to help her provide for their six children, her loss of income began to affect her family’s well-being. And without money coming in, Anne Marie couldn’t afford treatment for her condition.

But things turned around for Anne Marie when she met a doctor supported by Alcon, a medical company specializing in eye care, who did surgery on her eye, restoring her vision. She is able to work again.

This World Sight Day (today) we celebrate Anne Marie and the more than 100,000 people in Haiti have improved vision with help from a collaboration formed in 2012 between Alcon Laboratories, the Haitian Society of Ophthalmologists, and Direct Relief.

The joint program provides cataract and glaucoma surgeries and other essential eye care procedures – free-of-charge – to  thousands of people who are blind or have impaired vision in Haiti. In 2012 alone, more than 72,000 patients were seen and over 6,700 surgeries were performed.

This collaborative partnership works with six eye care facilities in Haiti with the goal of cutting treatable blindness in half over the course of the next three years. It is especially needed in Haiti as the country has one of the highest rates of blindness or reduced vision due to cataracts in the Caribbean region, with estimates ranging from 40,000 to over 60,000 people suffering from the disease.

The six participating facilities, including the University General Hospital in Port au Prince and University Justinien Hospital in Cap Haitian, are now able to provide the high quality eye care for their patients that had not been possible in Haiti prior to the start of this program.

This partnership has  garnered over $7 million (wholesale) worth of eye care supplies and equipment from Alcon Laboratories, comprising a wide array of materials that are essential for treating cataracts, which typically require surgical removal and replacement of the eye’s lens.

Additional materials remain in Direct Relief’s warehouse in Port au Prince to be distributed to the over 100 visiting surgical eye teams supported by Alcon every year who provide essential eye care and surgical eye procedures to residents in more rural areas of the country.

Instead of bringing the bulky materials with them when they fly to Haiti, these ophthalmologists and eye doctors are now able to access the surgical items they need when they arrive into Haiti from Direct Relief’s warehouse.

By providing these essential items to hospitals around the country and the visiting surgical teams, people in Haiti like Anne Marie Moreau can live healthier, more productive lives with better access to free, high-quality surgical eye care.

The post Restoring Sight, Restoring Lives in Haiti appeared first on Direct Relief.

The five tons of medical material, valued at $231,000 (wholesale), will be flown to Indonesia on Tuesday, May 30, for use by Indonesian-based partner organizations and colleague U.S. nongovernmental organizations with medical teams in the region.

The aid shipments contain a disaster module furnished by Johnson & Johnson and other materials including: surgical instruments, sutures, wound dressings, casting material, disinfective agents, antibiotics, oral rehydration solution.

Muhammadiyah, Indonesia’s largest civic organization is among the partner organizations that will receive approximately one-half of the medical material aid, for use in its hospital in Bantul and its eight field clinics being established in Bantul and Klaten (Central Java).

The National Chairman of Muhammadiyah, Dr. H. Sudibyo Markus, today reported that the main facility in Bantul is functioning and providing services, but it is stretched beyond capacity. Two of the delivery rooms have been converted to operating theaters, and orthopedic surgeons have been deployed from the Indonesian government and other Muhammadiyah hospitals to assist with the surge of trauma cases. Post-operative patients are being evacuated to Muhammadiyah schools, although some patients remain in hospital corridors and outside under verandas.

In addition, Direct Relief is furnishing material assistance and cash assistance to partner organization Pusat Kajian dan Perlindungan Anak (PKPA). PKPA is an Indonesian organization focused on children’s rights and health, and Direct Relief is financing three of its health programs in Aceh and Medan in Sumatra as part of the tsunami recovery effort.

PKPA’s executive director, Mr. Ahmad Sofian, is in Yogyakarta conducting a rapid health assessment. Cash support approved today will enable PKPA to send 10 physicians to Yogyakarta to provide medical support, nutrition, and address other urgent needs for affected infants and children.

Persatuan Perawat Nasional (PPNI), another Indonesian partner organization with which Direct Relief has teamed to finance five health clinics in the areas hardest hit by the tsunami, is deploying a team of 20 nurses to Yogyakarta to care for earthquake victims.

Direct Relief has approved $25,000 for this effort, with the funds being managed by CHF International, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization with which Direct Relief has partnered on a large health infrastructure building program in tsunami-affected areas. CHF will also receive and distribute one of the emergency medical shipments through its staff members in Yogyakarta.

Corporate Support:

Direct Relief’s Indonesia material support effort is made possible by contributions from 22 companies:

• Abbott
• Aearo Company
• Alcon Laboratories, Inc.
• Amsino International
• Anda, Inc.
• BD
• Bristol-Myers Squibb Company
• BSN Medical, Inc. – Orthopaedics GBU
• Child Health Foundation
• Ethicon, Inc.
• Fisher Scientific Co.
• GlaxoSmithKline
• Hospira, Inc.
• Invacare Supply Group
• Johnson & Johnson
• Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies
• Kawasumi Laboratories America, Inc.
• McNeil Consumer & Specialty Pharms.
• Microflex
• Miltex Instrument Company
• Vitamin Angel Alliance
• Waldwick Plastics

The post Direct Relief Mobilizes Medical and Financial Assistance for Java Earthquake appeared first on Direct Relief.