Brief Report WPSAR Vol 6, Suppl 1, 2015 | doi: 10.5365/wpsar.2015.6.3.HYN_020 www.wpro.who.int/wpsar 21 a Office of the WHO Representative in the Philippines, Sta Cruz, Manila, Philippines. b Regional Office 8, Department of Health, Tacloban City, Philippines. Submitted: 6 August 2015; Published: 6 November 2015 doi: 10.5365/wpsar.2015.6.3.HYN_020 Surveillance for and issues relating to noncommunicable diseases post-Haiyan in Region 8 Rammell Eric Martinez, a Ronaldo Quintana, a John Juliard Go, a Mae Analyne Marquez, b Jae Kyoun Kim, a Ma Sol Villones, b and Miguel Antonio Salazar a Correspondence to Rammell Eric Martinez (email: martinezra@wpro.who.int or rammell.martinez@gmail.com). D isasters complicate the management of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) by disrupting access to and delivery of health care, including medicines. Following Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines in November 2013, much of the health infrastructure was destroyed and health service delivery was severely affected in Region 8. This left many people with NCDs vulnerable as medicines were destroyed or washed away, food was scarce, and access to medicines and drugs and quality health care was difficult. There is limited information about managing NCDs after disasters. Rapid health assessment tools do not tend to include questions about NCDs or the factors needed to respond to them post-disaster. 1 Most available guidelines for the health sector response post- disaster focus primarily on safe drinking-water, food, sanitation and hygiene, acute medical conditions, acute malnutrition, communicable diseases and injury; guidelines on chronic conditions are limited. 1–3 After Haiyan, NCD surveillance data were also limited. The Philippine Department of Health (DOH) has several health information systems and registries. The Field Health Services Information System collects information on different public health programmes and provides national health statistics. 4 The Integrated Chronic Noncommunicable Disease Registry System is a web-based system that captures data from hospitals on NCDs such as cancer, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, stroke and renal disease. 5 Primary health care (PHC) facilities, such as village health centres, have no access to this system. The Philippine Disease Surveillance and Response System is the routine disease surveillance system of DOH, established in compliance with International Health Regulations (2005). It captures data on 23 notifiable diseases and syndromes. 6 The Surveillance in Post Extreme Emergencies and Disasters (SPEED) system provides real-time health information (both cases and deaths) on 21 syndromes, three of which are noncommunicable: high blood pressure, diabetes and acute asthma. SPEED is activated post-disaster and collects health information on a daily basis from facilities in disaster-affected areas. 7 After Haiyan, SPEED was the only surveillance system that provided data on NCD surveillance. As there were also no specific guidelines or protocols for NCDs post-disaster, the World Health Organization (WHO) Representative office in the Philippines supported the implementation of the WHO Package of Essential Noncommunicable Disease Interventions at the Primary Health Care (PEN) in Haiyan-affected areas. This support included training health providers and providing essential technologies (e.g. blood pressure measuring devices, stethoscopes and devices to determine blood glucose and cholesterol levels) to sustain NCD service delivery after Haiyan. 8 In this brief report we provide the number of consultations and deaths from NCDs as reported from SPEED post-Haiyan and describe the effects that Haiyan had on people with NCDs as reported by front-line responders. METHODS We obtained the SPEED data set to identify the number of consultations and deaths for the noncommunicable