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Contents Other Organizations Issue No. 101 News and Information for the International Community October 2005 Information Management Offers Humanitarian A Record-Breaking Year a n i Agencies Opportunity for Coordination and Exchange t a L a s n e r P With this premise in mind, the Working f o y Group on Risk, Disasters and s e t r Emergencies—part of the UN Inter-Agency u o c o Standing Committee (IASC) for Latin t o h America and the Caribbean*—targeted P information management as a key compo- Wind and waves caused by Hurricane Wilma nent of humanitarian response. whip the shoreline of Havana, Cuba in October. Recently, the Regional IASC commis- s n i ince 1953, the World Meteorological k sioned a study to identify tools currently n e J Organization maintains and updates . J used in Latin America and the Caribbean to , O the lists used to name Atlantic tropical H manage humanitarian information, with an W S / storms. The 21 names repeat themselves O emphasis on emergency and disaster H A every six years unless one is retired due to a P response. Participating in the survey were the regional IASC members as well as 13 particularly catastrophic storm. In 2004, The ultimate goal of information other regional and subregional agencies, five four hurricane names were retired— management systems should be to aid in national civil defense organizations and par- Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne. (Soon saving lives after disasters. ticipants from eight other countries. The the names to be retired from the 2005 list following highlights of the study present a will be announced and “Katrina” will surely snapshot of the findings in selected coun- be at the top.) anaging information is a critical When the entire list of 21 alphabetic feature of humanitarian work, tries and agencies. (continued on page 7) names is exhausted in one season, subse- Mand agencies working in the field quent storms are identified by the letters of of risk reduction are convinced that the bet- * The members of the Regional IASC include the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the the Greek alphabet. With Alpha and Beta ter an organization is able to compile, ana- International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent already striking Caribbean and Central lyze and disseminate critical information Societies and the Pan American Disaster Response Unit (IFRC/PADRU), the International Strategy for Disaster American countries, the U.S. National using effective information systems, the Reduction (ISDR), the Pan American Health Organization/ Hurricane Center says that 2005 was the more efficient the humanitarian response World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations first time this contingency was put into will be and consequently, the greater the Development Programme/Bureau for Crisis Prevention and practice. Read more about the very active number of lives saved. Recovery (UNDP/BCPR), and the World Food Programme (WFP). 2005 hurricane season on page 4 and 5. News from PAHO/WHO. 2 Contents Other Organizations. 3 Member Countries . 4 Publications and Multimedia . S A LU S A LU O T O T 6 R E R E P P O P O P A A P H P H S O S O N N I I O D O D V N V N I M U I M U Selected Bibliography . 8 ISSN 1564-0701 WHO to remote areas have were children under15 years of age, while WHO Leads Health Cluster in Response now returned to Islamabad. nearly 53% are under 21 years of age. to Pakistan Earthquake The teams treated more Proactive measures such as measles and than 100,000 patients dur- tetanus immunization continues in PAHO Deploys Technical Expertise ing the last two weeks of Mansehra and Muzaffarabad and has October. begun in Batagram and Bagh. In addition to WHO experts, PAHO has provid- UN and National ed the support of disaster coordination experts, struc- Authorities Manage Relief tural engineers, epidemiol- Aid in Pakistan ogists, logisticians, environ- mental engineers and a supply management team. WHO and the Ministry of O H Health established a joint W / k c Coordination Center; O a l H B s WHO is also the lead W i / r h O C agency for the U.N. Health H A Cluster. Shelter, water and P y the end of October, the devastat- sanitation are still the main priorities and ing 7.6 earthquake that struck challenges, as health concerns stem from: a) ational authorities and the Pakistan on October 8 had claimed B the shortage of drinking water and sanita- UN are using the 55,000 lives and injured more than tion facilities; b) hypothermia and respirato- Logistics Support System 75,000. The onset of winter weather and N ry tract infections due to the lack of shelter; (LSS) in Pakistan to manage the the difficulty in reaching many of the and c) the risk of communicable diseases. tremendous amount of humanitar- injured could cause these numbers to Skin diseases such as scabies and impetigo ian relief arriving in the earth- climb. An estimated four million people and acute respiratory infections (ARI) are quake-stricken region. The LSS, are in need of health services and more becoming major public health problems due developed by six UN agencies, than three million are homeless. to the lack of hygiene, the cold weather and inventories all incoming donations The number of patients evacuated by inappropriate shelter. By the end of and monitors their distribution to helicopter to hospitals outside the the October, the number of trauma cases was warehouses in the affected areas. As affected areas has reached 20,000, decreasing. Of the 1,400 patients in one city is the case with SUMA, the LSS although the daily number of air evacua- alone that sought help from 17 health facili- system enhances transparency and tions to hospitals has decreased to 80. Of ties the first two weeks following the quake, accountability in humanitarian more than 13,000 surgical operations car- 44% received treatment for injuries; 25% operations. But it takes the SUMA ried out in these hospitals, 46 required for ARI; and 17% for acute diarrhea. system one step further, providing amputations. The 28 medical teams Ministry of Health data indicated that 46% a common platform for sharing mobilized by the Ministry of Health and of the patients treated in health facilities information among agencies to avoid duplicating efforts and to For the latest on the health response to the South Asia Earthquake: improve coordination. The system has been translated into Urdu (the http://www.whopak.org/disaster/ WHO Country Office in Pakistan. local language) to facilitate the operation. The coordination cell at http://www.emro.who.int/eha/pakistan.htm WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office, the Health Emergency Operation headquartered in Cairo, Egypt and responsible for Pakistan. Centre at the WHO Office in http://www.who.int/hac WHO headquarters, Department of Health Action in Crises (HAC). Islamabad is serving as the recep- tion and dissemination point of health-related information. 2 Disasters: Preparedness and Mitigation in the Americas • October 2005 New Web Site Piques Children’s Interest “ABCDesastres” is a new web site where young students and their teachers can learn about natural disasters and risks. The Spanish-language web site is divided into a number of sections. In ¡Quiero aprender! (Let’s Learn) young- sters will find a wide range of information on disasters and risk, including a glossary of terms. They will also be able to pay a virtual visit to many regions of the world as they search for data on risks and natural disasters, and explore links to web sites of a variety of organizations working in the field. A section called ¡Quiero Hacer! (Let’s Do It) contains activities that students can take part in to learn more about disaster prevention and mitigation. Visit www.abcdesastres.ceride.gov.ar/index.htm to take a tour of the site. ABCDesastres was created by the Regional Center for Research and Development in Santa Fe, Argentina, with the support of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the U.N. International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) and UNICEF. Agencies in El Salvador Discuss Importance of Social Communications in the Face of Disasters Both journalists and social communicators recognize they have an important role to play in getting reliable information to an at- risk public. Journalists pointed to the importance of receiving the right type of information, data and statistics in a timely manner and ensuring that the information is confirmed and attributed to reliable sources. They also committed to improving their knowledge about natural risks and strengthening relationships with national disaster agencies. Social communicators in public institutions pledged to develop strategies to deal with emergency situations, such as developing a data bank of health disaster information. To ensure follow up, a social communication plan was prepared to support the response and recovery phase of the mudslides and the alert phase of the l Salvador’s tallest volcano, the Ilamatepec volcano, had been Ilamatepec volcano, with a role for all three groups: the mass media, dormant since the early 20th century until it erupted on 1 health disaster response teams and at-risk communities. The plan EOctober, causing the evacuation of several thousand people should improve the ability of health institutions in El Salvador to and triggering a red alert in surrounding areas. Government author- communicate effectively about disasters. One of the expected long- ities were already in a heightened state of alert from the eruption term benefits of these efforts is that both the health sector and com- when Hurricane Stan hit several days later and caused devastating munities will be better able to identify risks and vulnerabilities and mudslides.
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