A catastrophic earthquake in Haiti Tuesday (Jan. 12) sent tremors all the way to Boston, prompting rapid, broad-based medical and humanitarian assistance from Harvard University and its affiliates.<\/p>\n
Two faculty members from Harvard Medical School<\/a> (HMS) are traveling today (Jan. 13) to Haiti, where they will join others already engaged in rescue operations, medical care, and relief efforts.<\/p>\n En route is Joia Mukherjee, medical director of Harvard-affiliated Partners In Health<\/a> (PIH), a not-for-profit aid group with community-based clinics in Haiti and eight other countries.<\/p>\n Also on the way is David Walton<\/a>, an internist at Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital<\/a> in Boston who is associated with PIH and is an instructor in medicine at HMS. In 2008, he helped to set up a 54-bed hospital in La Colline in Haiti\u2019s rugged Central Plateau.<\/p>\n Mukherjee and Walton will help medical and aid efforts in the shattered Caribbean island nation. Once they report back, PIH will send the appropriate supplies and personnel to provide relief.<\/p>\n Already laboring in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital near the quake\u2019s epicenter, is physician Louise Ivers<\/a>, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, who used e-mail earlier today to broadcast an urgent plea for help. \u201cPort-au-Prince is devastated,\u201d her e-mail said, \u201clots of deaths. SOS, SOS. \u2026 Temporary field hospital \u2026 needs supplies, pain meds, bandages. Please help us.\u201d<\/p>\n Ivers is clinical director in Haiti for PIH, which opened its first clinic in rural Haiti in 1985 and has since opened eight others. PIH also has community-based medical operations in Peru, Russia, Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda, Mexico, Guatemala, and the United States. The clinics are staffed by local medical personnel as well as by Harvard faculty and students.<\/p>\n All faculty and students involved with PIH in Haiti are reported safe, said Jeffrey S. Flier, dean of the Faculty of Medicine at HMS.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the situation on the ground in Haiti is an \u201coverwhelming tragedy,\u201d he said. \u201cWe all share in the shock and grief over [Tuesday\u2019s] devastating earthquake in Port-au-Prince. Our hearts go out to the millions who have been affected, both in Haiti and closer to home.\u201d<\/p>\n Flier also expressed concern that some members of the Harvard community \u201cmay be experiencing personal losses, and we want to offer them our compassion and to provide them with the support they may need.\u201d Members of the Harvard community who would like counseling services or referrals are asked to call Harvard\u2019s Employee Assistance Program at 877.327.4278 or to contact their Human Resources representatives.<\/p>\n