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Written by UM Healthcare
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Tuesday, 17 August 2010 |
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Entry republished with permission by UM Healthcare Date: 13 Aug 2010 Place: Villages Totakai & Gunbatay, Tehsil: Tangi District: Charsadda. Team: CDRS (paramedical staff) and UM Healthcare Trust (Dr. Qasim and paramedical staff) Today’s camp was directed at medical and relief activities in Village Totakai which lies in District Charsadda. Charsadda has been the worst hit district in the recent monsoon floods. According to government sources 60% of the local population has been affected, putting the figure at around 700,000 affectees. Part of the reason for theses staggering numbers is Charsadda’s geography. The district is flanked by three main rivers; Kabul River, Swat River and River Jindi. These rivers then merge south of the district and join the Indus river. Although this makes it one of the best irrigated and most fertile areas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, it also renders the region vulnerable to flood waters. River Jindi particularly, broke its banks and affected a large area around Tangi Tehsil. There has not been much improvement in the situation yet. People are still awaiting relief even 2 weeks after the floods caused massive devastation to their houses and crops. Although flood waters have receded, it will take a long time to rebuild the area and rehouse the displaced people. Most of the scenic villages along the river banks now lie in ruins. UM Healthcare and CDRS joined forces to provide relief to yet another village in Charsadda, called Totakai. It lies in Tehsil Tangi, which was particularly hard-hit. Many houses and boundary walls lay in ruins. We had already established our field office at the beautifully designed haveli (mansion) of Dilawar Khan, a landlord of the area, where we had stored supplies of medicines for onward distribution. We left early and had arrived at the camp site by 9 in the morning. The camp was at the place of a local elder, M Zeb Khan. His house is situated in the center of the village Totakai and refugees living with host families were quickly informed of our arrival. By noon we had treated 118 patients, mostly women and children.
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Written by UM Healthcare
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Monday, 16 August 2010 |
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Entry republished with permission by UM Healthcare On Saturday, the third day of Ramadan, we held two medical camps: one in mian sahib garhi and another in Gul abad. A total of 177 patients were seen. Date: Saturday, 14 August Village: Mian Sahib Garhi Tehsil: Tangi District: Charsadda Like all of the areas affected by the flood waters, Mian Sahib Garhi has no drinkable water and has not had electricity for the past 14 days. Our medical teams saw a total of 101 patients, primarily with respiratory tract infections, gastroentritis and skin diseases. There were also cases of malaria and typhoid seen. We vaccinated children and adults against cholera, typhoid and teatnus and packed up the camp at noon. Village: Gul Abad Tehsil: Tangi, Charsadda Our team treated 76 patients among the displaced people staying at the government primary school for girls in Gul Abad. Again, the primary issues here were skin diseases and dehydration, followed by gastroenteritis and respiratory tract infections. Report prepared by Dr. Amna Haleema, Medical Officer, UM Healthcare Trust
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Written by UM Healthcare
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Sunday, 15 August 2010 |
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Entry republished with permission by UM Healthcare Date: 05 Aug 2010 Location: Village Gul Abad, Tehsil Tangi, District Charsadda. Team: CDRS (paramedical staff) and UM Healthcare Trust (Dr. Naveed – Team Leader) UM Healthcare and CDRS have been one of the first teams to start working in the region of Charsadda. The davastation in Charsaada had been massive, however the pace of relief work is slow. On Thursday, the team went to Gul Abad village in Tangi Tehsil. This is one of the villages that has been ravaged by the flood waters, leaving many homeless who are now staying with their relatives or in neighboring houses that are still standing. Some who have no place to go have turned to government provided camps in schools. Our visit was coordinated by UM Hospital’s administrator Mr. Haji Sher Akbar through Mr. Nisar (Ex-Nazim of Mandani), who arranged our stay. Even as we were travelling towards the camp site, there was heavy rainfall along the way which continued during our medical camp. Though this made it a bit diffcult for the families to reach us, most of them made it to our site.
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Written by UM Healthcare
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Saturday, 14 August 2010 |
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Entry republished with permission by UM Healthcare Date: Wednesday, August 11, 2010 Village: DAANG KALAY TEHSIL : Tangi District : Charsadda On Wednesday, our team went to the Daang kalay village. Our team comprises two doctors (Dr. Haidar Ali & Dr. Naveed) and two paramedics from CDRS. We saw a total number of 160 patients there, which were mostly males, and mainly skin diseases, respiratory infections, and gastroenteritis all caused by dirty stagnant flood water. The majority of people in the area also suffer from dehydration due to the hot weather and lack of clean water supplies. In one case, a young female presented to Dr. Naveed with fungal dermatis which was worsened due to the constant water. She was advised of preventive measures and given anti-fungal oral and topical treatments. Similarly, a young man presented to me complaining of dizziness, vertigo and diarrhea. We found his blood pressure to be very low and treated him with medicines and fluida via i/v. Additionally, we delivered water purification tablets to the people and also vaccinated people against typhoid, cholera, and influenza. Date: Thursday, August 12, 2010 VILLAGE: BEYAR GARHI TEHSIL : Tangi DISTT : Charsadda Thursday was the 1st day of Ramadan, and our team went to the village of Beyar Ggarhi which was affected by flood waters on the 1st of August. After 13 days we were the first medical team to have reached there. The whole of the village was damaged by the flood except, luckily, the mosque. We found that all of their water wells were full of mud, streets were full of bricks and debris of damaged walls.
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Written by UM Healthcare
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Tuesday, 10 August 2010 |
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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.
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Written by UM Healthcare
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Monday, 09 August 2010 |
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Entry republished with permission by UM Healthcare August 8th was a rainy day here in Charsadda District. Our medical and relief teams went to Abazai High School with our two doctors (Doctor Shahid, Dr. Haider Ali) and the CDRS paramedics. The Abazai Government High School (GHS) principal and Union Council Nazim welcomed us with open arms. One week after the flood had hit the region, we were the first medical team to have come to their support. Nearby is the Munda Village where the head-works (water irrigation channels network) had been completely destroyed due to the severe flooding; causing complete demolition of nearby villages situated down stream. When the people of Munda village heard about our UM Healthcare free medical camp they eagerly came to seek medical treatment despite having to wade through the flood water to get to us. We saw a total of 160 patients comprising of villagers from Abbazai, Munda and refugee families residing inside the school (97 people residing inside GHS Abazai). Most of the patient community were females followed by children and males respectively. The most prevalent diseases were skin infections caused by dirty flood water, followed by gastroenteritis and respiratory tract infections. Due to lack of potable water, one of our infant patient developed acute gastroentritis and presented to us in a severly dehydrated, unconscious condition. His condition was very critical and our team member Dr. Shahid sucessfully intervened with a prompt replacement by i/v fluids. Luckily, by the time we were leaving the infant was stable and crying- promising a good prognosis.
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