Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said that "three million people — about a third of Haiti's population — had been affected" by the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti on Tuesday. International aid groups have estimated the death toll to be in the tens of thousands.

Medical supplies have been highlighted as particularly crucial in the effort to save lives in a country which was already severely stretched for medical resources before the earthquake.  Tammam Aloudat, an emergencies specialist at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC) Societies in Geneva stated that "[m]any other quakes have shown us very clearly that of people who suffer injuries and die as a result, most deaths occur within the first 72 hours."