Survivors need dialysis machines, maintenance meds

MANILA - Health Undersecretary Janette Garin is calling on private companies to do more for the relief and rehabilitation of typhoon victims. Garin is in Tacloban City after being appointed overall health coordinator for Leyte and Samar. She said survivors need equipment for diabetics, hypertensive and asthmatic patients. Maintenance medicine and basic utilities such as toilets are also needed. The government is working hard to rehabilitate public hospitals to proper working order. "The Department of Health under Secretary Orna has just finished assessment of damaged structures in Leyte, Samar, some parts of Cebu and Roxas, Iloilo. The unofficial estimate will be around 4 billion pesos...We first rehabilitate the hospitals and rural health centers and then we move on to the barangay health centers," she said. "We need dialysis machines. We need emergency drugs. We have donors that concentrate on the maintenance medication of the survivors mainly in Tacloban as we all know most if not all people are victims. Karamihan sa kanila they lost everything and recovering from financial burden in other terms maintenance medication would be a big burden to them...Other donors can focus on the diabetic, hypertensive, asthmatic. We can group them all together in one station and provide them with maintenance medication," she added. ANC FIRST LOOK, November 18, 2013