Several emergency teams from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) have already arrived or are flying to countries in East Asia after a succession of natural disasters in the region. In Indonesia, Philippines and the Samoa islands, MSF focuses its activities to meet identified unmet needs, from surgical care to distribution of relief items.

MSF specialists are currently assessing people’s needs and setting up the appropriate emergency response to cover gaps in medical care or relief. In Indonesia, where at least 1,100 people have been killed in the powerful earthquake, specialists are assessing the need for orthopaedic surgical care and nephrologists care as a priority. In the Philippines, where 450,000 people have been displaced by floods, assessment teams are focusing on needs in isolated areas, as well as evaluating the water and sanitation conditions. In the Samoa islands, the team includes a psychologist.

"In the first hours after a natural disaster, immediate life-saving interventions are carried out by local medical staff," said Marie-Noëlle RODRIGUE, an MSF emergency operations manager. "In the case of Indonesia, we know that the country has good capacity to respond to the emergency. But our experience after earthquakes shows that international medical teams have an added-value in terms of specialized medical care, specifically orthopaedic surgery or nephrologists care. We have the capacity to set up an inflatable hospital quickly, with two operation theatres and dozens of beds for patient hospitalisation. It’s the same kind of structure we used in Manshera, in Pakistan in 2005, where the surgical team carried out around 500 orthopaedic procedures after the earthquake."

MSF sent emergency teams with medical materials from Brussels, Paris and Panama to Indonesia on Thursday October 1. Three nephrologists from the 'Renal Disaster Relief Task Force' (University of Ghent, Belgium) are leaving together with the MSF team. They will carry out dialysis in order to treat people suffering from 'crush syndrome', a condition in which muscle tissue damaged by severe internal injury may release massive quantities of toxins into the bloodstream and lead to kidney failure. Left untreated, crush syndrome can be fatal.

"Besides medical needs, often there are also isolated groups of people left in dire situations for days or sometimes weeks after natural disasters such as earthquakes or floods," said Marie-Noëlle Rodrigue. "Our teams focus on the most vulnerable populations, like those who have most difficulties reaching assistance because they live in isolated areas, to provide medical care or distribute relief depending on the needs."

After a quick assessment of the needs in Rizal Province, in the Philippines, an MSF medical team has started to provide medical care to people in an evacuation centre in the location of Montalban. On Wednesday, September 30, around 80 medical consultations were provided.

Many of the poorest people who were living close to the river have had their homes and belongings washed away in the floodwaters. MSF is providing non-food items such as blankets, cooking pots, mattresses, jerry cans and hygiene kits.

The range of activities after natural disasters includes psychological care, like in China in 2008. Two psychologists are on their way, one to Samoa islands and the other to Indonesia. Others are on stand by.

An earthquake of magnitude 7.6 struck off the city of Padang, on the western coast of Indonesia's Sumatra Island, on Wednesday, September 30 at 5:16 pm local time. And on  September 26, tropical storm Ketsana hit the northern Philippines, killing 240 people and displacing 450,000.

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