TACLOBAN (AA) - Turkish doctors extended a hand to the Philippines' Tacloban province after super Typhoon Haiyan devastated the region on November 8, leaving thousands dead, wounded and homeless.
Doctors from Turkey who are also members of the Alliance of International Doctors, conducted a medical screening on those affected by the super typhoon, reported Anadolu Agency correspondent in the disaster area.
Visiting one by one the flattened homes in the region where Turkish relief agency IHH delivers humanitarian aid, Turkish doctors have started to examine the typhoon survivors and provided medicine for them.
Turkish physician Murat Kadir Topcu said they immediately acted following the typhoon to serve their humanitarian duties and went to Tacloban, launching efforts as soon as they arrived at the disaster area.
Topcu warned against post-disaster conditions like contaminated water supplies paving the way for diseases such as cholera and typhoid.
He pointed out the lack of clean water and food shortage in the province as the biggest problems, along with rottening dead bodies under building wreckages which put huge numbers of people at risk of epidemic diseases.
Topcu also called for much more intense flow of humanitarian aid, including food, water and medicine, to the region to address the urgent need of typhoon victims, describing the situation as a "picture of complete catastrophe."
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