Paris, 9 May 2008
Following the violent cyclone in Burma, Médecins du Monde immediately redeployed its teams to provide emergency care to the population of Rangoon and the surrounding area. Today, Médecins du Monde has received autorisation to send a back-up medical team and to charter a plane loaded with equipment and medicines.
Médecins du Monde has been working in Burma since 1995, caring for people living with HIV in Kachin state in the north and in the capital, Rangoon. Since Monday 5 May, we have reoriented our activities towards treating the population affected by the cyclone. We have, therefore, opened our clinic to the population and we are providing emergency care as well as continuing to monitor our regular beneficiaries.
According to the first feedback from the field, the population still does not have access to drinking water or electricity. Day to day survival needs have led to the first scenes of looting and the population is left with nothing. Our teams were able to reach the affected populations, particularly in areas around the capital, such as Thanlyin where there are 30,000 people and 60% of the hospital has been destroyed. The first assessments of the population’s health reveal many trauma conditions as well as diarrhoea, respiratory infections and skin infections.
Médecins du Monde has just received autorisation to work in the Irrawaddy Delta region, the major rice producing area where there has been considerable damage. On Saturday, a plane chartered by Médecins du Monde and the Red Cross, and loaded with equipment and medicines, will leave Bordeaux for Rangoon. An emergency team, specialists in emergency situations, has also been sent to reinforce the general and logistical co-ordination.
Médecins du Monde again calls on the Burmese authorities to open the country to international aid and to facilitate transport so that the aid can be managed effectively by humanitarian actors to help those who have been affected.
Press contact:
Florence Priolet / Céline Morel
Tél : 01 44 92 14 31 / 32
Portable : 06 09 17 35 59
Fax : 01 44 92 14 40
infomdm@medecinsdumonde.net
www.medecinsdumonde.org