Direct Relief is continuing to reach out to its network of partner clinics and regional associations in and around Myanmar, including the exploration of logistical routes for medical material aid. Our Asia program officer is en route to Thailand in order to aid this process.
To help inform our response, Direct Relief has taken the health facility data from the World Health Organization’s Global Health Atlas Survey and mapped the entire Myanmar healthcare network in Google Earth. The resulting Google Earth layer contains plotted points for the 700-plus Ministry of Health facilities which represent existing points of access to health care. We often use Google Earth for our ongoing and emergency response efforts to help target medical assistance and coordinate efforts with other actors.
To share this information broadly, Google Earth has generously posted this layer and a post by Direct Relief COO Annie Maxwell to their LatLong blog. Click here to read Annie’s blog post. To download the Google Earth KML file, click here. (You will need Google Earth in order to view the file. To download Google Earth, click here.)