HHS Emergency Response in Haiti: Summary Report, Jan. 27

The HHS medical teams have reported seeing more than 15,500 patients so far, approximately 2,455 yesterday, Jan. 26.
HHS has approximately 340 people deployed in Haiti to support relief efforts, although this number will return to approximately 275 when team rotations are complete this week.
- A Disaster Medical Assistance Team and the International Medical Surgical Response Team continue to provide patient care using temporary medical stations set up in a soccer field near a GHESKIO clinic in Port-au-Prince.
- Additional teams are providing primary care at Thebaud, at the U.S. embassy and at a Forward Operating Base in Petionville, as well as to assist with medical screening for passengers at the airport and triage patients flown aboard the Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort.
- Although the teams continue to treat traumatic injuries, they report seeing an increasing number of patients with chronic disease, and patients who need wound care or basic care.
Public health experts from HHS Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are participating on teams conducting rapid assessments of conditions in Haiti. Information related to water safety, food supply, shelter conditions, and other health threats is being collected at more than 50 sentinel surveillance sites to develop and prioritize immediate interventions.
CDC experts are also working with USAID, US Incident Response Coordination Teams, Haitian Ministry of Health, and PAHO to develop public health surveillance instruments for ongoing assessments of types and numbers cases of disease, injury, and other health conditions. Once finalized, CDC will work with the government of Haiti and clinicians to collect data in 31 hospitals and other health facilities across Haiti.
Approximately 16,012 American citizens have returned to the U.S. as of midnight Jan. 27. Of these, approximately 6,319 received Administration for Children and Families (ACF)-funded services assistance, such as medical attention, food, short-term lodging, transportation or logistics for their onward flights in the United States. These services were coordinated by the state emergency repatriation team.
Children who are coming from Haiti who have been matched with an adoptive family but who do not yet have legal guardians are placed in the custody of the Federal government, and are the responsibility of the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). As of Jan. 27 at 1:00 a.m., approximately 199 unaccompanied Haitian children have been put under the care of ORR. Of these, 134 were released to sponsors. Sponsors are typically prospective adoptive parents who had already begun the process to adopt the child. An additional 62 unaccompanied Haitian children are being cared for at ORR-designated facilities and three more children are in the process of being released to their adoptive parents.