Seth Dixon‘s insight:

Typhoon Haiyan was enormous and hit a 400-mile swath on the Philippines.  The Philippines is a single country, but it is composed of over 7,000 islands; hundreds of islands are in need of relief aid, if not more.  The islands are in an archipelago which naturally fragments the land mass and isolates the residents making transportation, utilities and communications logistically difficult even in the best of times.  If the first few days after the typhoon, supply chains were cut off and many desperate people looted the sparse food resources available. The necessities to sustain life—food, water, shelter, medication and basic sanitation—are the all major concerns in the aftermath of the typhoon.      

While the police are saying that order is being restored, the effects of flooding pollute water resources and increase the spread of infectious diseases because of the poor sanitation.  The Philippines is gripping for an impending medical crisis from the spread of diseases in addition to the medical trauma that people suffered during the actual typhoon.  Richard Brennen of the World Health Organization (WHO) believes that these geographic difficulties make the relief efforts in the Philippines more difficult than the 2010 relief efforts to help Haiti after the massive earthquake.   

Tags: water, disasters, Philippines, medical, development, diffusion.

See on www.npr.org