MSF - Doctors Without Borders - Nepal Earthquake Emergency Response

Expert medical and non-medical expert teams are assisting victims of the Nepal Earthquake, which shook the Kathmandu Valley before noon on Saturday 25 April.

msf.org.uk

We currently have approximately 120 staff working in Nepal.

An MSF surgical team provided support for three days at the hospital in Bhaktapur, on the outskirts of Kathmandu, in order to help the staff operate on waiting patients.

In the town of Arughat, in Gorkha district, we are setting up a 20-bed inflatable hospital to initially provide treatment for wounded people.

We are adding mental health workers to our teams to begin providing psychological first aid in villages where people have suffered severe psychological trauma.

We have flown in more than 80 tonnes of supplies.

Update: 5 May 2015

Since 29 April, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) medical teams in Nepal have started reaching people spread across isolated mountain villages by helicopter and on foot. The districts of Dhading, Gorkha, Rasuwa and Sindhupalchowk were hit hard on 25 April and little or no assistance has reached many villages.

While the most critically injured people were evacuated in the days immediately after the earthquake, those remaining have been trapped in their villages as roads and walking tracks have been cut off by avalanches and landslides.

MSF medical teams are flying by helicopter to assess the needs and provide assistance in these remote villages. From 29 April to 4 May, MSF’s medical teams saw people in more than 15 villages.

On 3 May, an MSF team also set up a temporary clinic in the area of Chhapchet, in Dhading district, and began providing basic healthcare and minor surgical interventions.

The team will work to spread the word in the surrounding villages that people can now come to the clinic to receive care. On 4 May, another team landed in Lapubesi in Gorkha district, and will stay for three days to provide medical assistance in the area.

“We are seeing people in need of basic healthcare, as well as a number of people with wounds sustained in the earthquake that have now become infected,” says Anne Kluijtmans, an MSF nurse.

“We are cleaning and dressing wounds, as well as distributing antibiotics and pain medication. We have also treated cases of pneumonia, including among children.”

We will also send 3,000 medical and non-food items kits to Nepal.

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