Medical Camps Key Part of Flood Reponse

A pregnant woman in Baluchistan province consults with a Mercy Corps doctor. Photo: Dr. Imran Muneer/Mercy Corps

As Mercy Corps continues to deliver emergency kits throughout flood-affected parts of southwest Pakistan, agency health teams are treating outpatients at three rapidly erected medical camps.

Following the floods, agency teams of medical doctors and community mobilizers supervised and coordinated the opening of three emergency medical camps in the badly affected districts of Lasbela and Jaffarabad. The camps are the result of combined efforts by Mercy Corps' Pakistan Initiative for Maternal and Newborn Health - an existing project to improve maternal and newborn health in the area, funded by U.S. healthcare consultant John Snow, Inc. - along with local partner organizations and district health authorities.

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In Jaffarabad, a district where an estimated 2,500 families have been affected by the floods, two five-day health camps recently treated 2,116 patients for ailments including dehydration, skin infections and suspected malaria. The camps are essentially add-ons to existing village health centers run by government authorities.

Treatment and primary healthcare consultations are being provided under tents, with separate areas for waiting and for consultation. The medical camps function as an emergency triage site, too. On-site healthcare workers also vaccinated children, made referrals to better-equipped facilities when appropriate, and in some cases arranged transport for patients to and from the camp.

In the absence of functional health facilities, these camps provide the only recourse to the affected population to access primary healthcare. Public health authorities continue to provide healthcare services through these medical camps to affected populations in the two districts.

Camp workers report that medicines, shelter, food and clean drinking water are among the foremost needs of the flood-affected population. Maternal and child health services are also urgently required.

In addition to the providing emergency healthcare services, Mercy Corps teams are collecting vital health data in five districts in hard-hit Baluchistan. The results of this assessment will be used to help rebuild and strengthen affected health facilities, supply much-needed medicines and help establish linkages between the camps and larger health facilities.

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