Washington, DC, September 14, 2017 (PAHO / WHO) - Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) experts are supporting efforts to restore health services in the islands most affected by Hurricane Irma, with the deployment of health infrastructure experts, sanitary engineers, epidemiologists, and others, in collaboration with the affected countries.
Health authorities on the affected islands have identified their needs for drug supplies, and PAHO is sending in the necessary supplies, as well as supporting the mobilization of health personnel to support national teams that have been working non-stop since the passage of the hurricane.
The islands of Barbuda, St. Maarten and St. Bartholomew, Sint Maarten, Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Bahamas and Turks and Caicos reported serious damage to infrastructure, hospitals, and health centers, along with the loss of electricity and limited access to clean water. Hurricane Irma also hit the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Saba, Saint Eustatius, Saint Kitts and Nevis, causing less serious damage.
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OTR Editorial
"The PAHO contribution to the recovery of the health facilities in the affected countries and territories from Hurricane Irma is especially welcomed. OTR congratulates PAHO for its enlightened position - unlike some international organizations - to include most of the non autonomous territories along with the independent states in its coverage.
Thus, OTR lauds PAHO's announcement of assistance to the British, French, and Dutch dependencies, as well as to Puerto Rico (which has a formal status with PAHO). The singular omission of reference to the U.S. Virgin Islands in the periodic PAHO Situation Reports , however, should be corrected given the extensive damage affecting its three main islands of St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John.
Perhaps there is a misunderstanding as to the political status of the U.S. Virgin Islands as related to its qualifications to receive external assistance. Such eligibility has been long clarified in decades of United Nations resolutions endorsing assistance to that territory from the international system of organizations such as PAHO, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and others.
Hopefully these agencies will take this into account in the aftermath of not one, but two, category 5 hurricanes which have devastated these islands in their recovery and reconstruction phases.
Thus, OTR lauds PAHO's announcement of assistance to the British, French, and Dutch dependencies, as well as to Puerto Rico (which has a formal status with PAHO). The singular omission of reference to the U.S. Virgin Islands in the periodic PAHO Situation Reports , however, should be corrected given the extensive damage affecting its three main islands of St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John.
Perhaps there is a misunderstanding as to the political status of the U.S. Virgin Islands as related to its qualifications to receive external assistance. Such eligibility has been long clarified in decades of United Nations resolutions endorsing assistance to that territory from the international system of organizations such as PAHO, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and others.
Hopefully these agencies will take this into account in the aftermath of not one, but two, category 5 hurricanes which have devastated these islands in their recovery and reconstruction phases.
