MANILA/GENEVAâ€"Battered by conflict and flooding, hundreds of thousands of
people in the southern Philippines island of Mindanao have been
displaced from their homes and face
multiple health risks, including malnutrition, diarrhoea, respiratory illness and psychosocial trauma.“Urgent financial and material
support is needed to strengthen the health response to this humanitarian
crisis and reduce the suffering so many people are facing,†said Dr Soe Nyunt-U, the World HealthOrganization's representative to the Philippines.WHO is requesting US$ 914 176 to ensure the continued provision of health services to the internally
displaced people living inside and outside
temporary settlements in the conflict-affected regions.Proposed activities include:
coordinating health activities among multiple providers and establishing a field office in
Mindanao;
controlling communicable disease outbreaks by supplying medicines and other emergency health
provisions to local health providers;
recruiting new health staff or
strengthening capacities of existing staff to improve basic health service
delivery, establish health outposts in major camps and improve the quality of disease surveillance.
Since the
start of the conflict in mid-August 2008 between the separatists and government forces, more
than 300 people are reported to have been killed and 350 000-400 000 people displaced, a quarter of whomare housed in 164 evacuation camps in six provinces. The rest are staying with relatives or taking refuge in
makeshift bunkhouses on vacant lots and on roadsides.Health services in the camps
are now being provided by understaffed and poorly supplied mobile teams.
Public health services in communities hosting displaced people have been adversely affected as scant
resources have been
diverted into camps.Recent flooding has made matters worse, displacing more people. Local authorities have estimated that
around 300 000 people had been affected by monsoonal rainfall, and
more can be expected with the
typhoon season approaching.Paul Garwood
Communications Officer
Health Action in Crises
WHO, Geneva
Office: +41 22 791 3462
Mobile: +41 7974
555 46
Email: garwoodp@who.int
A family breaks their fast inside a tent at a refugee camp in Pangalengan, West Java September 4, 2009. More than 25,000 people have been displaced in West Java since the ...
