Entry republished with permission by UM Healthcare

UM Healthcare’s mobile medical relief team went to the Christ Church in Nowshera Cantt. today. On our visit yesterday to St. Mary’s school, Risalpur we had observed that although there were a number of flood affected people living in the makeshift school camps under the Christian Mission, they have not been targeted by either government or private agencies for relief
activities for the past one week since the floods first hit Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Our visit to the first such school (St. Mary’s) provided insight into the problems that these people were facing and the resource constraints for the Church to provide for the affectees.

We had met Reverend Salamat who proposed that UM Healthcare must also visit the Christ Church in Nowshera to provide medical support to their camp. Therefore today we established camp at the historical Christ Church Nowshera
which will be commemorating its centennial anniversary in 2014.

Adjacent to the Christ Church lies The Christ Church Educational Centre, a double storey building which has two schools in it. The Christ Church High School on ground floor (medium of instruction – Urdu) and the Pak United High School on the upper floor (medium of instruction – English). Although the refugees were staying at the educational centre, the electric supply to it had not been restored. The Principal, Mrs. Qamar Javed welcomed the team and we started operating in a side room of the church building which was more convenient for logistic reasons.

The administration was friendly and cooperative. A teacher from the educational centre, Mr. Tahir Tariq was very supportive. He volunteered to help us with the registration of the patients and managed effectively the flow of patients. The Badrashi (a nearby village) Union Councillor Mr. David Shamshad was also present and helped us out with the distribution of bottled water, juices and biscuits among the affectees.

The school houses about 20 families with about 85 residents. Some of the residents had gone to their respective flood devastated houses to salvage belongings since there have been news recently of looting in the abandoned houses. Thus the number of patients we saw was a bit less than we had anticipated.

We treated a total of 50 patients at this site today:
6 male Pediatric
4 female Pediatric
17 males
23 females

There were some interesting observations. One 30 year old patient said he had never been to a doctor before, so I had to give him a full physical to rule out any other pathologies and advised him to have some lab tests done from UM Hospital. A lady suffering from epileptic seizures had not ever had any medication for her seizures, rather she had been advised by a quack to have an exorcism done. The alarming symptoms of her illness were cause of much concern to her children so I counseled the whole family together about the emergency steps to take in case of a seizure and gave them insight into
the disease pathophysiology to dispel some of their notions.

After the camp Mr. Tahir Tariq gave us a visit of the Educational Complex to help us understand the living conditions of the families residing there. The school has provided them with utensils and daily rations but the families have to cook the food for themselves. The camp is hygienic, but since many of the affectees risk exposure to flood water when they return to check on their houses, they need to be vaccinated. UM Healthcare is collaborating with partners to procure sufficient vaccines for all residents.

We thanked Reverend Salamat and packed up later in the afternoon. Our experience at this camp was a very rewarding one.

Report prepared by Dr. Qasim Nasr, Medical Officer Incharge, UM Healthcare Trust.