HHS Emergency Response in Haiti: Summary Report, Jan. 30

The HHS medical teams have reported seeing more than 20,800 patients so far, including approximately 2,200 yesterday, Jan. 29.

Since they began seeing patients Jan 17, HHS medical teams have performed 71 surgeries and delivered 26 babies.

HHS currently has approximately 270 people deployed in Haiti to support relief efforts.

• 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 assisting with medical screening for passengers at the airport and triaging 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, patients who need wound care or basic care.

The U.S. government is making every effort to recover, identify and repatriate the remains of U.S. citizens who perished in the earthquake. An HHS Family Assistance Center (FAC) Team is working with the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Department of Defense, and families of U.S. citizens to gather information that will help identify Americans who died so they may be reunited with their families and brought to their final resting place in the United States. 

Public health experts from HHS Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are participating on teams conducting rapid assessments of ongoing surveillance of health conditions in Haiti. Teams are creating snapshots of the current situation related to water safety, food supply, shelter conditions, and other health threats at over 50 sentinel surveillance sites. These data will be used to develop and prioritize immediate interventions. CDC experts have developed with international partners a public health surveillance instrument for ongoing assessments of types and numbers cases of disease, injury, and other health conditions. The surveillance is being piloted over the next week in hospitals and other health facilities across Haiti.

Approximately 18,964 American citizens have returned to the U.S. as of midnight Jan. 30. Of these, approximately 6,738 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.

Unaccompanied children 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. 30 at 6:45 a.m., approximately 267 unaccompanied Haitian children have been put under the care of ORR. Of these, 179 were released to sponsors and 88 unaccompanied Haitian children are being cared for at ORR-designated facilities. Sponsors are typically prospective adoptive parents who had already begun the process to adopt the child.