SOLOMON ISLANDS GOVERNMENT MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND MEDICAL SERVICES P.O. BOX 349, HONIARA MINISTRY OF HEALTH EMERGENCY OPERATIONS CENTRE (MOHEOC) SITUATIONAL REPORT 6 (18th April to 21th April 2014) Events Flash and River Flooding – 03 April 2014 Tsunami warning/watch – 13th April 2014 Date Issued: 22/04/2014 Time Issued: 3pm Next update: 3pm, 23/04/2014 From: Incident Controller To: Chairperson, PDOC HCC, PDOC GP, NDOC, NDC, Chairpersons – All Clusters cc: Government Ministries, UN Agencies, NGO’s Situation Description At 11:00 am on April 3, 2014 a tropical low with a central pressure of 1002 hectopascals as relocated near 11.1 degrees latitude south and 158.7 degrees longitude east, approximately 63 nautical miles northwest of Bellona Island and 100 nautical miles south of Guadalcanal island. As a result of flash flooding, approximately 10,000 people in Honiara city and 40,000 people in Guadalcanal Province were affected. On 13th April 2014, at 7:20 am an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.3 later down-graded to 7. 6 occurred at a latitude of 11.3 degrees south and longitude of 162.3 degrees East, 108km SSE of Kirakira, Makira Province. A Tsunami Warning was issued by the SI Meteorological Service at 7:33am. Further after-shocks occurred through-out the day. HEALTH SECTOR CONTROL CENTRE AND COORDINATION Since the health emergency operation centre was activated on the 5th April 2014, the Ministry of Health continues to support the Honiara Health Division and the Guadalcanal Health Division with key public health and curative assessments and interventions. The primary objectives of the Ministry of Health during the response and immediately post disaster are: a. WASH Page 1 of 34 b. Public Health Assessment and Interventions in the affected areas, including Vector-borne disease control interventions, Health Promotion, Environmental health interventions, social welfare services. c. Acute clinical care involving Maternal and Child Health, Nutrition, and vulnerable populations including the psychologically affected individuals in the affected areas. d. Enhance surveillance coordination, information management, communications and response including preparation for surge in demand. The Health Sector noted the directions from the P-DOC (HCC) as follows: a. Reducing the number of evacuation centres. b. Providing relief assistance at home. c. Conduct survey of IDP in all evacuation centres. d. Infrastructure and economic assessment of impact. e. A package for voluntary repatriation. And the health sector has been tasked to make an environmental assessment of the original homes of evacuees as well as assessments of FOPA village as an alternative evacuation centre for the immediate term. The Ministry of Health has established a Health Command and Control Centre at the Henderson Police Post to support Guadalcanal Province PEOC. The Ministry of Health has been working closely with the Honiara Health city services and as of today has assigned a senior health official to establish a health command and control center at the HCC health services Head-quarters. The Ministry of Health continues to operate a 24 hour 7 days a week, Command control Centre at the NRH. The health sector has been coordinating with the IDP/welfare cluster, and has completed and sent the HAP to NDMO on 15th April 2014. The NDMO Multi-sectoral Assessment Team was assembled on 15/4/2014 of which Health has been requested to be a part of. The assessment forms (including health –specific assessment forms) have been reviewed and training is planned for the Team on the 16/4/2014, before they are dispatched to perform the assessments. The Health Cluster along with WASH will assess the Burns Creek area on 21st April 2014 for suitability of return of IDPs. HEALTH INFRASTRUCTURE STATUS All HCC Clinics are fully functional except for the 3 clinics that were affected (White river, Mataniko and Pikinini Clinics). Safety assessment has been done for White River clinic on 11th April as well as for the Mataniko/Pikinini Clinics on 12th April 2014. Spraying by the Fire Service commenced on 15th April at the Mataniko and Pikinini Clinics with clean-up is being assisted by local volunteers. Volunteers started cleaning up the White River clinic as of 16th April 2014. Cleaning of the affected clinics continued into 17th April. As of 18th April the interior of White River Clinic has been cleaned but the surrounding area is still full of mud. Mataniko Clinic still requires interior additional cleaning while the Pikinini Clinic needs further assessment of the building structure in addition to cleaning up of its interior and surroundings. Page 2 of 34 A: White River Clinic; B: Mataniko Clinic; C: Pikinini Clinic. At the NRH there is erosion of the coastline (2.5meters), which has caused risk to the children’s ward being inundated by high tides and weatherly conditions. The immediate solution was discussed which include filling up the coast-line with tripod sea breakers, or option recommended by infrastructure cluster. A request for assessment of the National Referral Hospital, physical, environmental and functional capacity has been included in the HAP. The physical status of the antenatal and postnatal wards has now been condemned and currently is not being used. The drainage system at the NRH is currently blocked which is also causing sewage drainage blockage. It has been observed that this is due to the rising sea level which frequently blocks the outlet. HEALTH SERVICE DELIVERY 1. Honiara City Health Services MoH/HCC combined mobile clinics which started on the 7th April 2014, are currently providing services to the evacuation centres. They have also made some assessment in at least 14 evacuation centres as at 7th April 2014. The health services delivered at the evacuation centres is being coordinated by the IDP/welfare cluster. There is now resumption of normal services in the non-affected HCC clinics, as well as focused enhanced services and assessment in MCH, surveillance and general outpatient services. On the 14th and 15th of April, the three HCC mobile clinics visited all evacuation centres. Normal services in the non-affected HCC clinics continue, as well as focused enhanced services and assessment in MCH, surveillance and general outpatient services with 2 medical officers each assigned to cover the East and West HCC clinics. There is currently MSF team support in public health consultation and psychological services which have been so far provided to the FOPA, Panatina Pavilion and Mbokonavera evacuation centres. A health team from Taiwan is assisting with health care in HCC located camps. These visits still need better coordination with the existing HCC teams for optimum delivery of health services. Mobile clinics continue visits to ECs from 18th to 21th April with the 3 teams being reduced to 2 teams on 20th April. The MSF team continued to provide supporting clinical and psychological services. Page 3 of 34 HEOC notifiable diseases seen by HCC mobile clinics 50 41 40 30 24 24 20 21 17 20 15 15 13 13 11 10 9 8 10 8 9 9 10 6 4 6 4 6 5 1 01 2 00 0 11 1 21 0 00 0 0 1 10 1 0 0 0 00 0 11 0 0 0 21 0 0 0 0 00 1 2 20 1 00 0 0 0 10 1 0 0 20 0 0 0 Numberof Cases 0 8-Apr 9-Apr 10-Apr 11-Apr 12-Apr 13-Apr 14-Apr 15-Apr 16-Apr 17-Apr 18-Apr 19-Apr 20-Apr 21-Apr Diarrhoea without blood Bloody diarrhoea Red Eye Influenza like infections Suspected dengue Malaria The above chart illustrates the number of post-disaster notifiable diseases seen by the HCC mobile clinics each day. Albendazole and Vitamin A treatment covered by mobile clinics Albendazole Vitamin A 300 200 100 0 Number of cases Number The above chart illustrates the number of cases receiving deworming and vitamin A treatments from the HHC mobile clinics per day. As the days progress the number of children being treated reduces as they near towards the treatment of all at risk children. 1.1 Health Promotion On 14th April the HP headquarters had a meeting with the WHO Risk communication expert and conducted a second meeting with other stakeholders/ agencies including WHO, UNICEF, WV, RC and CARITAS to enhance proper coordination and support of HP activities to the ECs & affected communities. IEC materials on WASH materials and a personal hygiene fact sheet have now been developed and the HP component for HAP Health /Nutrition cluster has been completed. Also on 14th April, training on WASH and Hygiene Promotion of the camp leaders/ ECs group leaders for FOPA and Panatina ECS was done. Health awareness talks on the same topics were carried out in nine (9) classes at the Panatina ECs. Provision of interpersonal communication by the incorporation of nursing staff to the five (5) ECS (White river, Bishop Epale, Police club, Mbokona, Naha school) was done. As of 10th April the HP division have developed IEC materials comprising information on a new born baby and a fact sheet on WASH. Media support continues through the Daily Radio Health radio program. Two groups were Page 4 of 34 deployed with the first group focused on establishing and training IDP Camp advocators at the KG VI and Mbuavalley camps on personal hygiene, washing of hands, boiling of water, cleaning up of surroundings, proper rubbish disposal/ management and proper use of toilets. The second group focused on health awareness to patients presenting to Rove, Mbokona, Mbokonavera, Kukum, Vura and Naha clinics on identified health issues such as diarrhoea, red eye, dengue, common cold and acute respiratory infections. The HP headquarters coordinated Risk Communication training on 15th April, facilitated by a WHO/RC Specialist for HP staff and teams from HCC & GP.