Pharmaceutical companies within the OECS (Organization of Eastern Caribbean States) have stepped into to help those islands which suffered major losses and death in the aftermath of the Christmas 2013 flash floods.
According to reports out of St. Lucia these floods caused millions of dollars in infrastructural devastation but sadly, many people were killed and some died as flood waters swept them away.
According to the OECS Secretariat, their pharmaceutical procurement service has activated a disaster relief fund which made provision for St. Vincent to receive EC$60 000 and St. Lucia EC$75 000 to assist in the funding the costs of critical medication needed in those islands.
These funds will go towards medications to treat water-borne diseases, leptospirosis, gastrointestinal disease and dengue which are usually prevalent after disasters of this kind. Intravenous fluids, oral rehydration salts and antibiotics were also included as part of the medications to strategically fight post-disaster infectious and other diseases.
This intervention by the OECS/PPS is supplementary to that of other organizations like the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO).
