Equipped with medical material aid Direct Relief has provided, staff from Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS) has deployed to Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh States in southern India today to assist people displaced by vast flooding there. With more than 2.5 million people left homeless and living in shelters, AIMS is also transporting an ambulance and its state-of-the-art telemedicine van, which Direct Relief funded, to the area to provide mobile care.

Based in Cochin, AIMS has sent a team of medical professionals to the flood regions, including a surgeon, an emergency medical physician, three general physicians, a gynecologist, two emergency technicians, two nurses, a lab technician and an X-ray technician. Stocked with emergency medical material aid Direct Relief provided, the team has mobilized to assist flood survivors.

The flood module Direct Relief sent to AIMS includes medicines to treat 10,000 people for 80 percent of the illnesses that arise in a flood. Respiratory infections, skin infections, and waterborne diseases are primary health concerns during flood conditions, especially when people are displaced and living in camps.

Direct Relief has supported AIMS’s work since 2004, including funding the technically sophisticated telemedicine van that enables AIMS to provide high-level care to remote populations. During emergencies, AIMS transports the telemedicine van to camps for internally displaced people, where it provides everything from primary care to complex diagnosis via a satellite transmission of data and video conferencing to its main hospital.

Direct Relief is in close contact with AIMS and is supporting its flood response as additional needs are identified.