HPH NOWHSPH Responds to Haiti Earthquake
A church near the Cange hospital in Haiti has been converted into a ward. The Cange hospital is part of a Partners In Health-affiliated complex. Click the photo to watch a slide show. Photo by David Walton. Courtesy of Partners In Health.
In a short period of time, a 7.0 earthquake devastated parts of Haiti on January 12, leaving tens of thousands dead and others struggling to survive. HSPH alumna Louise Ivers, MPH’05, was in Port-au-Prince when the quake struck. A doctor, Ivers wrote in an email quoted in the New Yorker: “We did our best for the 300 wounded people who came to the driveway looking for some help. We pulled license plates from vehicles to make splints; found first aid kits in nearby cars; and tried to tourniquet wounded arms and legs, and to stabilize the fractures with torn up T-shirts, and in some small way relieve the suffering.
Ivers is clinical director of the Harvard-affiliated Partners In Health (PIH) in Haiti. She was one of a number of HSPH community members who quickly joined relief efforts. Working with PIH and the University-wide Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI), faculty members and alumni are providing disaster relief expertise and critical medical care.
Paul Farmer, a professor in the HSPH Department of Global Health and Population, is co-founder of PIH, which operates multiple medical sites in Haiti and has had a presence there since 1985. On January 22 on the PIH blog, the Haiti Program Coordinator wrote: “To date, PIH has sent 22 plane loads with 144 medical volunteers -- orthopedic surgeons, anesthesiologists, surgical nurses and other medical professionals -- and several thousand pounds of medical supplies to support the more than 4,500 PIH health care providers already in Haiti.”
Hilarie Cranmer, MPH’04, and Stephanie Rosborough, MPH’06, are taking the lead in setting up a postoperative medical camp to serve displaced Haitians just over the border in the Dominican Republic. Cranmer is an assistant professor in the HSPH Department of Global Health and Population and a physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). Rosborough is an instructor in medicine at HMS and an emergency physician and disaster relief expert at BWH. Both are affiliated with HHI, which is coordinating teams of medical, surgical, and public health personnel to rotate in and staff the field hospital.
Haiti has “significant critical care and long-term development and reconstruction needs,” said Vincenzo Bollettino, HHI’s director of programs and administration. “I think our staff is encouraged in the sense that they’re having an impact, but the horizon is pretty broad. This disaster is going to require relief and recovery efforts for a long time,” he said.
Representatives from HHI are working with the United Nations Health Cluster in Haiti — an effort to coordinate the activities of government, non-governmental, academic, and private organizations during medical emergencies. The Initiative also is providing technical support to organizations using high resolution aerial imaging and mapping technology to identify road disruption, access points, population clusters, and settlements.
Michael VanRooyen, HHI co-director and associate professor in HSPH’s Department of Global Health and Population, has been compiling regular situation reports, including current activities of the Harvard-affiliated hospitals, HSPH, and other Harvard institutions, in addition to updates on the status of relief operations in Port-au-Prince and surrounding affected areas. See http://www.hhi.harvard.edu/ and http://twitter.com/HHI for more information.
Other alumni involved in Haitian relief efforts include: Miriam Aschkenasy, MPH '03, HHI fellow, physician, and public health specialist at Oxfam America; Joia Mukherjee, MPH '01, chief medical officer for PIH; and David Walton, MPH’07, an internist at BWH and instructor in medicine at HMS who is associated with PIH.
Read more about Harvard’s response to the crisis:
Harvard Gazette, January 19
Harvard Gazette, January 15
Harvard Responds to Haiti Crisis
Harvard Gazette, January 13
-- Amy Roeder. Photo by David Walton. Courtesy of Partners In Health.
