Eric Ouannes, General Director of MSF Japan, answers questions about what exactly MSF is doing to help with the relief effort after the devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunamis that struck Japan a week ago.
Washed out vehicles are mingled with landslide by the tsunami following the earthquake in Wakabayashi ward of Sendai city in Miyagi prefecture. 12th March, 2011. Photo by JIJI PRESS
How has MSF responded to the quake?
Eric Ouannes: Rapidly – at least we have tried to respond very rapidly. Right from the beginning we had a small mobile assessment team moving from one place to another very quickly to cover as much of the devastated area as possible and visit as many evacuation centres as we could.
Can you tell us about the national response to the earthquake and tsunamis?
EO: It has been a massive response. Numbers are not very clear but we are talking about between 80,000 and 250,000 people, coming mainly from the Self Defense Forces but also from other emergency medical organisations as well as some other foreign and government aid groups.
What are the main medical issues in the places that MSF has visited?
EO: For the moment, in the 20 or 30 different evacuation centres we have visited, the main issues are chronic diseases among elderly people. Their treatment has been interrupted and our doctors are looking at restarting it to prevent the patients falling into acute situations.
Communication has been very erratic over the past four days. It is getting better, but it is still quite difficult. Transportation is difficult too. Almost everywhere we have been roads are blocked and there has been a shortage of fuel for our vehicles.
There are a number of issues facing those people affected by the earthquake or the tsunamis. The cold weather is not at all nice. There is a lack of food and water, while the most urgent need is blankets.
What kind of chronic diseases has MSF encountered?
EO: The usual chronic diseases in an elderly population: hypertension, cardiac diseases, diabetes. We are trying to restart their treatment, as I said earlier. We have also seen some cases of hypothermia affecting people, as well as dehydration. But again, it’s a limited number of cases compared to the vast number of people who have been displaced or who have lost their homes.
Does MSF envisage a long-term involvement in Japan?
EO: It is too early to say. We are looking to expand the team, but no decision has been made yet. We need to reach new areas to the north of the Miyagi prefecture, where we are now. We are trying to get to Iwate to assess the needs there.
One thing is clear: our flexible mobile teams are responding to the needs and we will continue with the same strategy. It may be that we bring in more teams, but we are not looking at a massive intervention with hundreds of international personnel coming from all over the world.
Why is that?
EO: First, because there is a massive deployment of aid from the Japanese government, as well as from foreign governments. It is not a humanitarian crisis at this stage, and the most urgent needs are covered. A number of hospitals still function in the area, a referral system is still functioning, there are drugs, and doctors are available in most of the hospitals.
Obviously there are some gaps, but that is not abnormal in such a situation, especially considering the scope of the disasters. I say disasters because there were several, and there are gaps, and we are here to try to fill those gaps.
What will MSF do in the event of a significant nuclear event or the situation in Fukushima getting even worse?
EO: We will evacuate our teams. We are monitoring the situation on an hourly basis. We have radiometers (radiation detectors) with each of our teams on the ground. We are cross checking the situation with various government and non-government agencies, in many different locations in the world, not just Tokyo. As soon as we reach a level that could become unhealthy or dangerous for our teams, we will evacuate the team. We have the means to evacuate quite rapidly, evacuation routes have been identified, so yes, that’s what we will do.
What about treating illnesses caused by radiation, is that something MSF can contemplate?
EO: At this stage no. We are not experts on that. We are investigating the medical issue of nuclear radiation to try and see if we can help. We have some people amongst the 25,000 or 30,000 people working in MSF who have worked in this field of medicine, and we are collecting this expertise together. This is more the duty of the Japanese government and, from what we hear or read in the news, they are already trying to prepare for that.
Will MSF be launching appeals for its activities in Japan?
Again, as we don’t really know the scope of this intervention in the next weeks and months, it is too early to say. Obviously, we are discussing this and note that a lot of international organisations which are not present on the ground have launched appeals. For the moment, the position of MSF is that we have enough funding to respond to the needs of the people in Japan.
To read more about MSF's latest activities in Japan click here.