Harvard Public Health

There are widespread power outages and shortages of food and water in Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria. The storm is being blamed for at least two dozen deaths. It also devastated the island’s infrastructure, destroying the power grid and leaving millions without electricity. According to estimates from the U.S. military, half of the island does not have access to clean drinking water. To get some perspective on the public health and medical challenges facing the island we spoke with Stephanie Kayden, vice-chair and chief of international emergency medicine and humanitarian programs in the department of emergency medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Kayden is also an assistant professor in the Department of Global Health and Population at the Harvard Chan School. Kayden has delivered emergency medical care around the world—including constructing a field hospital for survivors of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.