AmeriCares is responding to the disaster by deploying medical teams to treat patients in areas cut off from services. Working with the local government and health care officials, we are providing water purification tablets, antibiotics and analgesics, as well as medications for chronic diseases such as diabetes for people who don't have access to medicine or medical care.We are establishing a three to six-month intervention with focus on providing primary and maternal and child care.
In June, heavy downpours and cloudbursts unleashed 23 inches of rain in just 60 hours, triggering devastating floods and landslides in the Indian states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. Indian officials estimate that more than 4,000 people may have been killed and thousands of homes damaged or destroyed; already more than 110,000 people have been evacuated. This project will support the health needs of 10,000 flood victims and their families.
We will provide primary care to those people affected by the flooding. We will also tend to the injuries people suffered during the disaster and provide chronic disease support and medicines to those displaced and suffering from diabetes and hypertension. Deworming medicines and water purification tabs will cure and prevent water borne illnesses so often seen after flooding. Nutritional and vitamin supplements will ensure the health of mothers and children.
AmeriCares will conduct at least 16 weeks of medical camps and health education initiatives in the affected region during the next six month. We will address the health needs of over 10,000 individuals and distribute free medicines and supplies. We will also distribute 6,000 especially designed and created mother, child and family care kits which will include nutritional supplements and non medical hygiene items.
