Entry republished with permission by UM Healthcare
Date: 7th Aug 2010
Site: Nowshera city & nearby village Badrashi
Partners: UM Healthcare, DMC & DRIP and CDRS
UM Healthcare partnered with Disaster Management Centre (DMC) Abbottabad, Disaster Relief by Irish and Pakistanis (DRIP), and Comprehensive Disaster Relief Services (CDRS) for a combined medical camp in Nowshera. This camp was aimed at vaccinating and treating those flood affectees who had not been targeted by a medical team before.
DMC Abbottabad works in collaboration with DRIP, under the direction of Dr. Noaman Siddiqui, and has combined efforts with UM Healthcare during the Internally Displaced Pakistanis (IDPs) crisis last summer. The two relief camps in May and June 2009 of that both organizations did together developed a rapport between the staff members and also enabled us to help more IDPs than each organization could have independently.
Thus it was natural to enlisted DMC’s help in reaching out to a maximum number of flood affectees in Nowshera this month. A couple of days earlier, UM Healthcare had provided medical treatment to residents of Christ Church Educational Centre in Nowshera, which has become home to about 20 flood-displaced families. Despite having a place to stay, they had not received vaccinations against epidemic diseases that have surfaced during this crisis.
Today, the team returned to Christ Church Educational Complex for a vaccination campaign. The DMC team consisted of Dr. Noaman and trained paramedical staff was together with UM Healthcare team and Mr. Todd Shea and Dr. Shahid of CDRS. Dr. Noaman’s team had brought along an ambulance filled with medicines, food items, vaccines, bottled water and hygiene items, and the vaccines (against Tetanus and Typhoid) were generously donated by Dr. Noaman. This time, due to the rain, we set up our armamentarium inside the school premises and vaccinated a total of 85 patients in about 2 hours.
Vaccination clinic at Christ Church Educational Complex
During the process we were visited by a delegation of the Salvation Army Pakistan which was surveying the damage caused by the flood and the needs of the communities. We exchanged information on health issues of the area with them and discussed areas of concern. The Salvation Army is presently collecting data for its relief efforts.
At the Church we were informed about another minority community nearby in Loya Wera, which had some flood affected families living with them that had not received vaccinations. We moved on to this locality after we had completed the vaccination campaign at Christ Church. Loya Wera is a small gated community home to about 20 Hindu families, situated in the middle of a busy market, a couple of kilometers away from Christ Church. Uopm arrival we were welcomed by the community elders. We started right away by registering and vaccinating the flood affected people living there with the host families. They were hospitable people and the team enjoyed working with them. 40 people including children were vaccinated there.
Our next stop was Government Primary School No. 2, in Badrashi village which lies on the outskirts of Nowshera. Here we were surprised to know that for more than ten days there had been no medical camp. Thus there were more ill people at this camp than we have seen at others. We also found that the Principal of the school was busy arranging lunch for the residents of the school. He told us that there had been no food support for the camp since morning and they had been making arrangements through community support. We distributed as many food items, water, formula milk and ration as we had with us among the affectees. UM Healthcare and DMC gave vaccinations and medicines to patients alongside the food items.
It appears that most residents are constantly exposed to flood water even now and are exposed to greater amounts of infectious diseases from the cramped living conditions in relief camps. We observed this in our camp, as the major bulk of disease was diarrheal and respiratory illnesses. We counseled residents about better hygiene practices and the need for frequent hand washing as a precaution against acquiring or transmitting diseases.
There are still a lot of communities that haven’t received adequate support on medical or food side and we are working with our partners to target as many of them as possible.
Report prepared by Dr. Qasim Nasr, Medical Officer Incharge, UM Healthcare Trust.