Medical treatment really is vital for refugees, as they are prone to diseases due to lack of hygiene and nourishment during their getaway journey.
In most refugee camps, toddlers are right away vaccinated against the typical contagious diseases, such as measles, polio, tetanus or tuberculosis.
Even the bigger refugee camps often only have two doctors and few nurses at hand for the medical treatment of tens of thousand of people. This is why refugees are under any circumstances dependent on voluntary helpers\’ support.
The catastrophic medical treatment situation of many displaced people becomes obvious in the following example of a refugee camp in Matala, Angola. Said camp can only be reached through a five hour car drive under most appalling road conditions, and the drive to the camp is perilous, as the land in Angola is littered with mines after several years of civil war.
Each of the voluntary doctors coming as well from Europe to Angola, treats up to 100 refugees per day. Most people suffer from parasitic worms, diarrhoea, tuberculosis, bronchitis, scabies or other bacterial infections of the skin, deficiency diseases due to their lack of iron and vitamins, as well as malaria, dengue fever and other tropical diseases.
Medication generally is in short supply in those refugee camps, as they can\’t reach refugees due to political unrest and destroyed infrastructure. Because only a small part of the necessary medication can be bought thanks to donations, many ill refugees must pay on their own for it. However, only few can actually afford their vital medicine, so many are denied optimal medical treatment. Even the most vital surgery cannot be conducted in many provisional refugee camps, because the necessary doctors, medication and medical equipment are simply not at hand. Besides, lacking hygiene is a big problem.
Too many people are dying in refugee camps, whose lives could have been saved by an expansion of medical aid. It\’s because of this, that we\’re all asked to help the many millions of displaced people with our donations.
This post is also available in: German