AAFP Foundation Launches Relief Drive for Earthquake Victims

Physicians working in Pakistan in the aftermath of the 7.6 magnitude earthquake that hit the region on Oct. 8 are struggling with lack of access to earthquake victims, supplies and shelter. In response, the AAFP Foundation is soliciting donations to help earthquake victims.

Health care professionals with the International Medical Corps, AAFP's international partner in this endeavor, are on the ground in one of the hardest hit and most inaccessible regions of the earthquake zone. Forty personnel from the IMC are providing emergency care while assessing the region's immediate and long-term needs.

According to a press release from the organization, "IMC established a camp to provide initial medical care and supplies in a village just outside Ghari Habibullah," a small town north of Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, that is close to the epicenter of the quake. Critical care patients are being transported to hospitals in Manshera or Abbottabad, cities north of Islamabad. The IMC is providing five tons of medical supplies, which it estimates will help 40,000 survivors during the next three months.

In a letter to Dr. M. Tariq Aziz, general secretary of the Pakistan Society of Family Physicians, AAFP President Larry Fields, M.D., of Ashland, Ky., expressed the Academy's support. "I wish to express our deep regret and sorrow at the massive loss of lives and destruction of homes affecting over two million of your people in the tragic earthquake that shook your region in the past several days."

In response to Fields' letter, Aziz wrote, "I would like to thank you for your concern because your kind words are of such immense value … I feel our pain has been relieved and energy restored to work day and night." According to Aziz, the earthquake destroyed some 26 hospitals and several hundred clinics. He described shortages in sterilized gauze, bandages, scrubs, disposable sutures, analgesics and antibiotics. "Tents and blankets are main requirements," because houses are destroyed or damaged and injured people are lying out in the open, said Aziz.

The death toll in Pakistan is expected to top 30,000, and tens of thousands more have been injured and/or are homeless. Rescue efforts have been hampered by limited road access to the area, and bad weather is expected within the next two weeks.

"As temperatures drop, cash donations continue to be critically necessary in order to purchase tents, blankets, food, cooking utensils and other life-saving supplies," says the IMC press release.

Funds collected via the AAFP Foundation Web site will be forwarded to the IMC to use for earthquake relief.