AmeriCares Disaster Relief Expert Headed to Japan

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Mar 11, 2011, 04:18 ET

Organization prepared to send medicines, medical supplies and humanitarian aid

STAMFORD, Conn., March 11, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AmeriCares is dispatching an emergency response expert to assess the health needs in Japan after a record 8.9-magnitude earthquake earlier today unleashed a deadly tsunami.

With a disaster of this magnitude we anticipate a need for medical aid in the coming days and weeks. AmeriCares emergency response experts are in contact with local officials and hospitals treating survivors and are prepared to send medicines, medical supplies and humanitarian aid as needed.

"Japan is a wealthy, industrialized nation that prepares for emergencies like these, but as we learned from Hurricane Katrina, a disaster of this magnitude can stretch the resources of even the most prepared countries," said Christoph Gorder, AmeriCares Senior Vice President of Global Programs. "After a tsunami there's always an enormous need for antibiotics and wound care supplies to treat survivors with infected wounds and respiratory infections from inhaling contaminated sea water."

AmeriCares has provided medical relief and humanitarian assistance to millions affected by natural disasters and man-made crises around the world for nearly 30 years including the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia. Our emergency response work also includes the 2010 earthquakes in Haiti and Chile and the 1994 Kobe earthquake in Japan.

AmeriCares emergency response work often lasts years beyond the initial disaster – as we rebuild hospitals and health clinics and restore health services destroyed by the disaster. One year after the Haiti earthquake AmeriCares is still delivering medical aid to health care facilities treating survivors, and six years after the Southeast Asia tsunami, AmeriCares is still helping to rebuild hospitals for survivors in Sri Lanka.

About AmeriCares:

AmeriCares is a nonprofit global health and disaster relief organization which delivers medicines, medical supplies and aid to people in crisis around the world. Since it was established in 1982, AmeriCares has distributed more than $10 billion in humanitarian aid to 147 countries. For more information, log onto www.AmeriCares.org

Available Topic Expert(s): For information on the listed expert(s), click appropriate link.

Curtis R. Welling

http://www.profnetconnect.com/curtis_r._welling

Christoph Gorder

http://www.profnetconnect.com/christoph_gorder

Contact: Donna Porstner: 203-658-9579, [email protected]

SOURCE AmeriCares