Children in typhoon-hit Tacloban, Philippines, receive vaccines against measles, polio

26 November 2013 | Tacloban, Philippines - Children in Tacloban - the city hit hardest by Typhoon Haiyan - were today vaccinated against measles and polio in the first phase of a mass campaign by the Government of the Philippines with support from WHO, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and other partners. They also received Vitamin A supplements to help improve their immunity against infections.

30 000 children targeted in first phase

Over 30?000 children are expected to be reached by the campaign which is taking place at fixed sites in evacuation centres and in communities using mobile health teams.

"It is virtually unprecedented that within two-and-a-half weeks of a disaster of this scale, with this level of devastation and these logistical challenges, that a mass vaccination campaign is already rolling out."

Dr Julie Hall, WHO Representative in the Philippines

The vaccination drive in Tacloban is the first phase of a campaign targeting children aged less than 5 years in all the typhoon-affected areas. Fifteen teams (10 foreign and 5 national) including volunteers from the Department of Health, the Philippines Red Cross and other non-governmental organisations, were in locations across Tacloban giving vaccines today. The first to receive them were children in 20 evacuation centres, such as San Jose Elementary School, where more than 300 families currently live in conditions that can heighten the risk of infectious diseases.

"The children of Tacloban need all the protection they can get right now," says Angela Kearney, UNICEF Coordinator for the Emergency Response in Tacloban. "Disease is a silent predator, but we know how to prevent it and we will do everything that we can."

WHO and UNICEF coordinate vaccine supply and establish cold chain

At the Government’s request, UNICEF purchased over US$ 2 million worth of vaccines to replenish in-country stocks now being used for the campaign. In addition, UNICEF and WHO are helping to re-establish the broken cold chain, which is critical in keeping vaccines at the right temperature.

"WHO and UNICEF staff hand-carried supplies from Manila to Tacloban, coordinated teams to give the vaccines and trained them on how to do it under these difficult circumstances. It is virtually unprecedented that within two-and-a-half weeks of a disaster of this scale, with this level of devastation and these logistical challenges, that a mass vaccination campaign is already rolling out," says Dr Julie Hall, WHO Representative in the Philippines.

During the campaign children being immunized are also screened for malnutrition by measuring their mid-upper arm circumference which will indicate if they are undernourished and require referral for treatment.

For further information, please contact:

Nyka Alexander
Communications Officer
WHO, Manila
Telephone: +63 906 493 5097
E-mail: alexandern@wpro.who.int

Gregory Hartl
Coordinator, News and Social Media
WHO, Geneva
Telephone: +41 79 203 6715
E-mail: hartlg@who.int

Zafrin Chowdhury
UNICEF, Tacloban
Telephone: + 63 917 867 8366
E-mail: zchowdhury@unicef.org

Kate Donovan
UNICEF, Tacloban
Telephone: + 1 212 303 7984,
Mobile: + 1 917 3781 2128
E-mail: kdonovan@unicef.org

Denise Shepherd-Johnson
UNICEF, Manila
Telephone: + 63 917 464 7028
E-mail: dshepherdjohnson@unicef.org

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Typhoon-hit city struggles with next-to-no supplies

By Aubrey Belford

BOGO, Philippines (Reuters) - By lunchtime on Wednesday, the entire aid stockpile for nearly 70,000 people hit by Typhoon Haiyan on a devastated Philippine island could fit on the back of a pickup truck.

Sitting under the shattered roof of the stadium in Bogo, a city at the northern end of Cebu island, Mayor Celestio Martinez Jr. pointed to the paltry cache: half a palette of bottled water and five cardboard boxes of food bearing the label of a private charity.

"Somewhat, we've been overlooked," he said, smiling weakly.

Five days after Haiyan tore through the central Philippines, killing thousands and destroying whole towns, headlines have mostly focused on chaos in and around the city of Tacloban on the island of Leyte.

But further west, on Cebu, Haiyan left a trail of equally violent desolation. Aid is still only dribbling in, while the most basic of necessities are lacking.

Provincial officials say as many as 90 percent of buildings on the north of Cebu were badly damaged by winds and rain, which also flattened crops, downed power lines and blocked roads.

The official death toll stood at 57, compared to the provisional overall total of 1,883, a figure kept relatively low thanks to a lack of deadly storm surges and to timely evacuation.

Many areas, however, appear all but obliterated.

The road from Cebu city, the provincial capital, is lined with hundreds of children holding out their hands in despair or carrying crude signs reading: "We need food and water."

There are few aid trucks and military vehicles.

"The very immediate needs in these areas are food, water and temporary shelter," Neil Sanchez, the provincial disaster response chief, told Reuters.

There are fears in outlying areas of water-borne diseases, including cholera.

The provincial government has shipped seven truckloads of aid to affected areas, Sanchez said. Some international aid groups are active on a small scale, as are local charities.

"Thank God for the private organizations," he said.

In Bogo, 12 of 29 subdistricts were nearing the end of their three-day allotments of rice, canned food and instant noodles, said Christian Yurango, the local relief coordinator.

New supplies, he said, were expected by late afternoon, but not guaranteed. No aid had arrived for rebuilding shattered homes, leaving residents to scavenge.

POWER CUT, GRIME

At the local hospital, tucked in behind a line of palm trees barely left standing, a small generator fails to supply enough power to keep the lights on in the operating room or fans running in the overcrowded, grimy maternity ward.

Medicines and test samples are cooled by bags of ice trucked in from Cebu city, three hours away, chief nurse Cynthia Renile said.

Though the hospital appears overwhelmed by storm casualties, with beds spilling out into the hallways, Renile says the squalor and overcrowding are chronic. The only real difference now is the heat and the power cuts.

That might just be good enough for Jingle Poyos, 20 and heavily pregnant when the storm hit.

She and 50 others cowered in her great aunt's concrete home as the winds hit their peak. Early on Wednesday, she gave birth to a daughter, Nica, but no longer has a home to which she can bring her.

"We don't have a house now," she said. "No food, no water, nothing."

(Editing by Ron Popeski)

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