Inflatable hospitals raised by Doctors Without Borders front the grounds of Tacloban's Bethany Hospital on Thursday (November 21st). The tents allow doctors to do both in-patient and out-patient consultations and treatments in a sterile environment. [Odd Andersen/AFP]

TACLOBAN, Philippines – Inflatable field hospitals have been erected in typhoon-ravaged Tacloban, part of a huge international relief effort to help millions hit by Super Typhoon Haiyan, AFP reported.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) had by Thursday (November 21st) erected three of the five large white medical tents brought from France.

The tents will give the organisation capacity to do both in-patient and out-patient consultations, emergency treatment and surgery in a sterile environment, said MSF logistician Damien Moloney.

MSF has worked in various parts of the typhoon disaster zone for around a week.

Natasha Reyes, the group's emergency coordinator, said some of the most serious cases were in Guiuan, where 600 people came for treatment on their first day of operation.

A lack of clean drinking water has given rise to gastrointestinal infections and diarrhoea, especially among children.

"All of our medical teams are on the lookout for the very dangerous diseases that are endemic in the area – typhoid, schistosomiasis, cholera and leptospirosis," Reyes said. "The worry is that the conditions people are living in as a result of the disaster might trigger an outbreak."