Doctors in Haiti express concern over long term care for injured

Haiti's president Rene Preval is urgently calling for an additional 200,000 tents for the country's homeless and asked for planes carrying tents to have priority at Port Au Prince's airport. Attention is focusing on the country's nearly 1 million left without shelter by the earthquake. The UN has cleared 12 acres north of Port Au Prince, which it hopes will be used as sites for temporary settlements. An estimated 200,000 have already fled the capital.

Dr. Joia Mukherjee is the medical director for Partners in Health, an organization that has 170 medical teams in Haiti. She calls this a massive demographic shift in Haiti that is putting pressure on rural communities.

"Mayors and local officials have asked us for thousands and thousands of tents as they try to absorb and house the numbers of refugees who are flooding out of the capital who have lost their homes."

Dr. Mukherjee said her teams are concerned about infections. Staff has already found cases of tetanus and, in a country where vaccinations are uncommon, the danger is widespread.

Another long term concern is aiding recovery for the thousands of survivors who underwent amputations as a result of crushing injuries. Dr. Mukherjee said the country lacks support for these survivors.

"We're going to need a lot of rehab support, a lot of prosthetic support, but also some vision of what it is going to be like to have a nation of people, many of whom are disabled. And then add to that, which I think goes hand in hand, there is a huge amount of psychological trauma: one, for people with amputations and then two, just psychological trauma in general. We have inadequate support for the long term needs of a population that is this wounded and this traumatized."

The United Nations has also identified care after surgery as a priority. Paul Garwood is a spokesperson for the World Health Organization.

"In particular we see a great need for services for amputees. There have been thousands of people who have suffered amputations. As a result of this emergency, we've seen in some hospitals every day from 30 to 100 amputations taking place. At the moment, the key focus for WHO and other health providers on the ground to is to provide better and more rehabilitation and other post-op services to enable people to recover from their amputations."

Meanwhile, in Port Au Prince roads are beginning to open up, but there are still reports of aid delayed at the airport as people wait in long lines for food and water on the streets of the capital.