South Asian Tsunami

By the end of 2005, MSF will have used 90.1 million euros, or 82% of the tsunami donations, to fund its operations in the Tsunami region (M€ 24.7) and to meet urgent needs in other emergencies and forgotten crises (M€ 65.4) such as the nutritional crisis in Niger, the conflict in Darfur and the earthquake in Pakistan.

Days after an enormous tsunami battered parts of South Asia on 26 December 2004, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams began working alongside national efforts to provide assistance to individuals in need of medical care, food, clean water, shelter and other basic necessities.

I first arrived in Aceh around three months ago in mid March. My role was to define a more long-term strategy now that we were out of the emergency phase.

Six months have passed since an enormous tsunami hit parts of South Asia, leaving behind a horrifying trail of destruction and suffering. Within days of the December 26, 2004 disaster, MSF teams began working alongside national efforts to provide assistance to individuals in need of medical care, food, clean water, shelter, and other basic necessities.

Five months have passed since an enormous tsunami hit parts of South Asia, leaving behind a horrifying trail of destruction and suffering. Within days of the December 26, 2004 disaster, MSF teams began working alongside national efforts to provide assistance to individuals in need of medical care, food, clean water, shelter, and other basic necessities.

Morten Rostrup, MD, worked in Indonesia’s devastated Aceh province providing medical consultations to thousands of people who survived the earthquake-triggered tsunamis.

31 January 2005 - A little over one month after the tsunami hit Southeast Asia, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is publishing a detailed report of its emergency relief activities to assist the victims of the disaster. Since the beginning of the crisis, over 200 international MSF volunteers and 2,000 metric tons of supplies have been sent to the region. Today, 127 international volunteers are helping in Aceh, Indonesia, 36 in Sri Lanka, and 6 in India, working side by side with national staff.

Claire Rieux, MD, is an MSF volunteer working in Sigli Hospital in Indonesia's Aceh province. Most of the Indonesian medical staff members in Sigli Hospital were killed by the tsunami.

Tonia Marquardt, MD, was dispatched on December 31, 2004 to Sri Lanka, where she served as a field coordinator for the Trincomalee emergency on the eastern coast of Sri Lanka.

One of the most dangerous diseases to be found in Aceh province, Indonesia, in the wake of the tsunami disaster is tetanus. Potentially life-threatening, tetanus transmission is facilitated by infected wounds.

MSF is now supporting the newly functioning pediatric, surgical, and medical wards in Meulaboh hospital. On January 9, 40 patients were in the surgical ward, many of whom were suffering from infected wounds caused by the tsunami two weeks ago. MSF has also been taking care of two premature babies that weigh only five pounds.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has sent more than 150 international aid workers and 400 tons of relief materials to provide assistance to people affected by the earthquake and resulting tsunami in South Asia. MSF is focusing aid operations on Indonesia and Sri Lanka, but is continuing to assess the humanitarian needs in the region.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has chartered a landing craft to carry water bladders, piping, reservoirs, and distribution ramps to Lamno, on the west coast of Aceh.

MSF has sent more than 150 international aid workers and 300 tons of relief materials to provide assistance to people affected by the earthquake and resulting tsunami in South Asia. MSF is focusing aid operations on Indonesia and Sri Lanka, but is continuing to assess the humanitarian needs in the region. Additional aid workers and relief cargo will be deployed as needed.

Over the past days a Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) medical team has been performing consultations in two displaced-persons camps in the town of Lamno.

A Doctors without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) surgical team has started working in Sigli General District Hospital. Sigli, the capital of Pidie district on the eastern coast of Aceh, is an area that has been severely damaged by the tsunami. The 35-bed hospital has remained open with the help of Indonesian staff (many of the employees of the hospital were killed).

To date, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has sent more than 60 international aid workers and 200 tons of relief materials to provide assistance to people affected by the earthquake and resulting tsunami in South Asia.

Brussels/Jakarta, January 3, 2005 — Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and Greenpeace are working together to bring desperately needed medical aid to survivors of last week’s earthquake. The Greenpeace ship ‘Rainbow Warrior’ and its crew of 19 will transport equipment, food, fuel, medical supplies, and MSF medical staff to Aceh, northern Sumatra; an area which has proven difficult to access for aid organizations. The ship departed from Singapore yesterday and is scheduled to arrive in the port of Medan tomorrow morning, where it will load supplies before heading to Banda Aceh, at the northern tip of Sumatra.

MSF medical teams are working in Indonesia's Aceh province to assist people left homeless by the earthquake and tsunami disaster in South Asia. MSF volunteer nurse Elaine Lau describes her first days in Aceh with fellow MSF volunteer Albert Ko, an engineer.

MSF medical teams returned yesterday by helicopter to Lhok Timon along the west coast of Banda Aceh to provide medical consultations. Following the tsunami, only 1,270 people of the original population of 3,200 are still in the village.

Philippe Guérin is an epidemiologist in charge of epidemiological studies at Epicentre, Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières’ (MSF) partner organization. In the following interview, he takes stock of the medical consequences of the tsunami and explains that the risk of epidemics is not a result of the disaster itself, but rather the potential consequence of people being displaced from their homes.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) yesterday also brought a mobile clinic to the remote costal town of Lhok Timon. The team was dropped by helicopter, with materials for medical consultations as well as 120 kilos of rice for the 1,500 people in the town who have been living on coconuts and bananas for the past five days.

December 31, 2004 - Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) emergency teams are on the ground in South Asia providing assistance to people affected by last Sunday's earthquake and the resulting tsunamis and carrying out multiple needs assessments in several countries in the region. To date, MSF has sent over 40 aid workers and 110 tons of relief materials to the region. Additional aid workers and relief cargos are en route and more will be deployed as needed.

New York/Brussels, December 29, 2004 – Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) today began providing medical aid to people in Aceh, Indonesia, a region devastated by Sunday’s earthquake. MSF is the first international organization to begin working in the area. A team of eight people, including three nurses and two doctors, arrived in Banda Aceh yesterday and set up a clinic in a camp for displaced people.

December 28, 2004 - Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) emergency medical teams are assessing the needs of populations in the areas hit hardest by the earthquake and tsunami in South Asia. MSF is airlifting more than 60 tons of medical, surgical, and water-and-sanitation equipment to Sri Lanka and Indonesia. Currently, MSF teams are on the ground in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.