Stamford-based AmeriCares is rushing an emergency delivery of essential medicines for hospitals in Nepal running low on supplies due to an ongoing fuel crisis there.
AmeriCares said it is supplying 2 tons of medicine, including antibiotics, wound-care supplies, antifungal medication and anti-diarrheal treatments, in response to an appeal from the World Health Organization.
An earthquake struck the region April 25 and to date AmeriCares has provided $21 million in relief supplies, plus other services that include a semipermanent presence in Kathmandu.
With fuel in short supply in recent months, it has become difficult to access food, medicine and other necessities in the land-locked nation, AmeriCares reported in a prepared statement. UNICEF warns more than 3 million children under the age of 5 are at risk of death or disease this winter as a result of the deteriorating conditions.
Last week, a coalition of UN agencies and other organizations working in Nepal issued a statement calling attention to severe shortages at health care facilities, saying the crisis is affecting care for pregnant women, children, earthquake survivors and other vulnerable patients. Many of the health care facilities AmeriCares is supporting through its earthquake recovery program have reported suppliers have halted deliveries, which AmeriCares temed “a major problem in a country that imports most of its medicine.”
AmeriCares first emergency shipment in response to the fuel crisis, which includes enough basic medicine to support a population of 40,000 people for three months, departed Amsterdam for Kathmandu recently. The shipment includes 6,500 courses of antibiotics donated by U.K.-based GlaxoSmithKline. AmeriCares is also supplying oral rehydration salts to treat patients suffering from diarrheal diseases. The products will be distributed to health facilities throughout the country. Additional shipments are planned.
“With 1,200 health facilities damaged or destroyed in the earthquake, Nepal”™s health system was already struggling. Hospitals will have no choice but to curtail services if the fuel crisis continues,” said AmeriCares Nepal Country Director Riaz Khalil. “We are working nonstop to help alleviate supply shortages and ensure earthquake survivors can receive care.”
AmeriCares is also providing counseling services to health workers in earthquake-affected areas and working with local partners to rebuild health care facilities destroyed by the disaster. AmeriCares opened an office and warehouse in Kathmandu to oversee its earthquake recovery programs through 2018.
The website is americares.org.
