Headed to India: AmeriCares

Contributed photo: AmeriCares.

AmeriCares has deployed medical teams to Tamil Nadu, where flooding has closed schools and a major airport in Chennai and claimed at least 269 lives.

The first team, organized by the AmeriCares India office in Mumbai in partnership with the Indian Medical Association, were scheduled to depart Saturday as well as to Chennai, Thiruvaloor and Kanchipuram in the coming days.

AmeriCares is focused on ensuring families displaced by the floods have access to essential primary care services, including medication, as well as health and hygiene products that will help prevent the spread of communicable diseases. AmeriCares is also delivering water purification tablets and jerry cans in areas without access to clean water.

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“Cholera, typhoid, dysentery and other waterborne diseases are a major concern,” Shripad Desai, managing director of AmeriCares India, said in a statement. “We will help ensure families affected have access to medical care and safe drinking water to help prevent the spread of infectious disease.”

Exceptionally heavy rainfall in Tamil Nadu in recent weeks has caused the worst flooding in 100 years, affecting hundreds of thousands of people. Daily life has been crippled in Chennai, the capital, with washed out roads and major power outages.