7.10.2008 - 11:30am ET

(CSRwire) STAMFORD, Conn., July 10 -- AmeriCares is continuing its efforts to provide long-term relief for people living in China's earthquake stricken Sichuan Province and in areas most affected by Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar. The nonprofit international aid organization today announced it has delivered a second field hospital to Sichuan Province and provided a second shipment of life-saving medicines and medical supplies to support primary health clinics serving displaced people in Myanmar's Irrawaddy Delta.

"In addition to providing this vitally-important medical aid in China and Myanmar, AmeriCares staff and partners on the ground remain committed to supporting the long-term recovery efforts and developing plans for the ongoing health care needs in the affected regions," said Curt Welling, president and CEO of AmeriCares. "AmeriCares is very proud to be a part of this critical relief effort, providing hope and health to the victims of these devastating disasters."

AmeriCares in China

AmeriCares is constructing and equipping its second field hospital in Sichuan Province. The second field hospital will be established in Wenchuan County, the epicenter of the 7.9 magnitude earthquake on the site of the Xuankou Township Hospital, which received severe structural damage. Currently, medical personnel are working out of a collection of tents on the site, seeing anywhere between 80 and 200 patients a day.

The new hospital will include an operating room, a clinical laboratory, an inpatient ward and will provide comprehensive maternal health services, including ultrasounds. The hospital will also have an emergency vehicle available to provide transportation for patients from the surrounding mountainous communities.AmeriCares is working with local Chinese authorities to make the hospital fully operational by the middle of July.The Xuankou field hospital follows the construction of an earlier field hospital in Qingchuan, an area where 250,000 residents lost their only hospital after the initial earthquake and major aftershocks.The field hospital in Qingchuan is fully operational, seeing between 150 and 160 outpatients each day, performing operations and deliveries and treating an inpatient population. Northwest Airlines donated the transportation costs for delivering both field hospitals, which are a product of BLU-MED Response Systems.

AmeriCares was one of the first private international relief organizations to provide aid to Chengdu, the capital of the hard-hit Sichuan Province, delivering an initial supply of medicines on May 22 and providing an additional shipment of critically-needed medical supplies, including anesthetics and nutritionals for diabetics to the Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital in Chengdu, China.

AmeriCares in Myanmar

In the wake of Cyclone Nargis in May, AmeriCares was one of the first nonprofit organizations to fly an airlift directly into Yangon. The airlift included 15 tons of medical supplies and medicine to help operate mobile medical clinics serving victims in local communities, including the Irrawaddy Delta region. This second shipment of aid will replenish earlier supplies, allowing our partner, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), to continue the relief effort in Myanmar and establish ten primary health clinics throughout the region.

AmeriCares relief workers are in Myanmar working with our partners to ensure the delivery of aid reaches those most in need.

The shipment contains 7,000 pounds of medicines such as antibiotics, analgesics, IV solutions, pain relievers and other essential drugs and medical supplies to equip IOM's health clinics. In addition to this shipment, AmeriCares is delivering medications to treat malaria and dengue fever to The MENTOR Initiative and IV solutions to help combat cholera outbreaks.

To learn more about AmeriCares and to find out how to support the ongoing relief efforts, visit americares.org.

About AmeriCares

AmeriCares is a private, nonprofit international disaster relief and humanitarian aid 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 $7.5 billion in humanitarian aid to 137 countries. For more information, please visit www.americares.org.

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