PHNO-HL: PHL HAS COMPLETE INGREDIENTS FOR DISASTER -DOH EMERGENCY SERVICE

PHL HAS COMPLETE INGREDIENTS FOR DISASTER -DOH
EMERGENCY SERVICE

[PHOTO -The country averages 20 typhoons a year -Photo: Jason
Gutierrez/IRIN]
MANILA, AUGUST 11, 2012 (PHILSTAR) By Sheila Crisostomo – With its
geographic location and weak regulations, the Philippines has the complete
ingredients for disaster and emergency situations, the Department of Health
(DOH) said here yesterday.
According to Susan Juangco of the DOH-Health Emergency Management Service,
the Philippines is vulnerable to disasters primarily because it is located along
the typhoon belt. "Every year, we experience 22 typhoons. For this year, we have
not had any typhoon yet," she said in the Covering Disasters 101 media seminar
organized by the DOH here.
Aside from this, the country is also situated along the Pacific Ring of Fire
and is sitting on top of two tectonic plates, making it susceptible to
earthquakes.
Juangco added that since the Philippines is one of the countries with the
longest coastlines, it is also vulnerable to tsunami which comes after an
earthquake.
The country is also teeming with 352 volcanoes, 22 of them active while 27
others are potentially active.
Juangco said the Philippines' vulnerability to emergency situations is
aggravated by weak regulations on land transportation, aviation and maritime
industries and inadequate prevention and response system.
She cited for instance fires, which she said can be due to illegal electrical
connections and non-observance of building codes.
Juangco also cited the country's inability to properly address oil spill
because of weak shipping regulations and lack of equipment for chemical
emergency and unclear cleanup policy.
"We may not be able to prevent typhoons (or other natural disasters) but we
can mitigate their impacts through our response (system)," Juangco said.
She, however, said that the country's situation may change with the passage
of Republic Act 101211 or the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management
Act of 2010.
"This law is intended to institutionalize disaster management in the country.
We are hopeful that through this law, we'll be able to prevent disasters or
emergency situations that are preventable while we can mitigate the impact of
those that are not preventable," Juangco told The STAR.
Before, efforts were more focused on the response aspect of disasters.
"But the law has four pillars – preparedness, response, rehabilitation and
recovery. So we will now be able to cover all aspects – from prevention and
mitigation to helping the victims (rebuild their lives). We will do this through
the coordinated efforts of (all government and private sector agencies),
particularly the local government units," Juangco said.
RELATED NEWS: FROM IRIN (HUMANITARIAN NEWS AND
ANALYSIS) ASIA ONLINE
Getting the message out during disasters
[PHOTO -PHILIPPINES: Texting help and health in disaster response
Photo: David Swanson/IRIN]
MANILA, 17 July 2012 (IRIN) - The Philippines looks set to expand its rapid
monitoring system, based on mobile phone text messaging, to lessen the number of
deaths and improve emergency response times.
With over 7,000 islands and more than 100 million people, the archipelago
experiences an average of 20 typhoons a year, with stronger storms in recent
years.
Surveillance in Post Extreme Emergencies and Disaster (SPEED), a project
supported by the World Health Organization (WHO), uses SMS / text messages on
mobile phones or the internet to alert emergency health officials to dangerous
situations and send them health information, and receive data on health
conditions in communities and reports of disaster damage.
The system was set up in 2009 on a trial basis after the Philippines, one of
the world's most disaster-prone countries, was battered by back- to-back
typhoons. Ketsana dumped enough rain to flood more than 80 percent of the
capital, Manila, when major rivers and waterways burst their banks, swallowing
entire urban communities in the worst flooding in recent history.
Exactly a week later, Parma ravaged the northern Philippines, triggering
landslides and floods. More than 1,000 people were killed, 600,000 were
displaced, and up to 10 million were affected by the storms, which caused an
estimated US$43 billion in economic damage, according to the World Bank.
As emergency workers struggled to help people in desperate conditions, an
outbreak of deadly waterborne diseases, including Leptospirosis began ravaging
survivors, infecting more than 3,380 people and killing 20.
"It was a wakeup call for us. It caught many health workers off-guard,
because they too were victims of the flood," said Carmencita Banatin, head of
the Emergency Management section of the Health Department. "So we decided to do
something and improve monitoring in post-disaster [circumstances] and asked the
WHO to help us put in place a surveillance system through text messaging."
WHO sent its Global Outbreak and Alert Response Network to Manila, which
worked with local officials to establish the initial phase of SPEED, covering
flood-affected areas. "We realized that in the aftermath [of a disaster]… health
managers needed to make quick decisions based on verifiable data on the ground
to prevent more death from disease outbreaks," Banatin said.

SPEED can be activated within 24 hours of any disaster, including
displacement caused by conflict, and works by tapping into the vast mobile phone
network in the Philippines - official statistics say almost everyone has a
handset. Where mobile phone systems are down, field reporters can use radios to
send in statistics for their area, she said.
Health and emergency "reporters", usually disaster response or health
officers at the barangay (the smallest administrative area) or municipal level,
fan out to community health facilities, hospitals and evacuation centres to
check on reported cases of the most common post-disaster diseases.
This data and other information is then sent via mobile phone - using codes
and formats specially designed for the system - to the central SPEED server
based in Manila, where it is collated and analyzed before making the information
accessible to emergency officials at all levels of government.
The system also sends immediate "notification alerts" to the mobile phones of
designated recipients when the number and distribution of specified health
conditions go over a specified threshold, "signifying the potential development
of a possible outbreak or epidemic, thereby allowing officials to respond
quickly," Banatin noted.
WHO country representative in the Philippines, Soe Nyunt-U, said access to
the SPEED website would be restricted to emergency officials who could make
vital decisions, including mayors, governors, members of the executive
department and emergency relief agencies. They would be able to pull up tables,
graphs and maps to help them analyze trends and deploy help where it was most
needed.
"The principle is to prevent more deaths and diseases. Disasters do happen,
and deaths and injuries at the time of the incident, but through this system we
would be able to prevent outbreaks that could lead to more fatalities," Soe
Nyunt-U told IRIN.
He said the nationwide SMS-based surveillance system was unique to the
Philippines, but other countries in the region were beginning to study the
module. Localized surveillance systems had been put in place after major
disasters, such as the 2004 tsunami that struck Aceh in Indonesia, but they were
abandoned when the situation normalized.
"This is a very good example of harnessing technology for a noble cause,"
said Soe Nyunt-U. "With this tool, we can prevent outbreaks, prioritize
movements, and health and emergency officials can pinpoint where to deploy help
with immediacy."
aag/ds/he
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United
Nations]



Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
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