IOM supports healthcare system in former conflict areas ahead of monsoon

IOM yesterday handed over essential drugs and medical equipment worth LKR 2 million (USD 18,000) to the Regional Director of Health Services of Mullaithivu for distribution to 10 village health centres and seven divisional hospitals in the war-affected northern district.

Since May 2009, IOM, in partnership with the Ministry of Health, has provided primary health care services to more than 206,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) in northern Sri Lanka, mainly in Vavuniya’s Menik Farm’s IDP camps.

It has also provided primary health care services to support the resettlement of 248,000 of the 300,000 IDPs formerly living in the camps in Mullaithivu, Kilinochchi, Jaffna and Mannar Districts. Nearly 18,000 IDPs have also used IOM’s 16 ambulances during the period.

Mullaithivu District, which has received 58,000 returnees from the camps, face a huge challenge in rebuilding its health care system, due to insufficient medical staff, war-damaged infrastructure and a lack of drugs, according to IOM Sri Lanka Health Programme Manager Dr. Kolitha Wickramage.

IOM’s donation, funded by the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), includes hospital examination beds, screens, sphygmomanometers, stethoscopes, wound dressing kits, IV drip sets, glucometers and essential medicines.

IDPs and returnees in the north currently face the additional threat of vector borne diseases such as malaria and dengue, as well as water borne diseases, with the onset of the monsoon season, according to Wickramage.

“IOM’s approach is to support the Health Ministry’s efforts to rebuild and strengthen the existing health system. Improved primary health care and monsoon preparedness activities, including vector control, are very high on our list of priorities,” he added. (IOM)