Faced with the scale of the humanitarian crisis in Lebanon Médecins du Monde, which put an emergency plan into place on 13 July 2006 to evaluate the medical needs and identify vulnerable populations, is today launching its emergency medical response.
In the eastern suburb of Beirut two mobile medical units are in place, each made up of one doctor and one nurse. They are carrying out consultations in several of the centres where displaced people have gathered and are distributing medicines, particularly to those suffering from infectious diseases and chronic illnesses whose treatment has been disrupted. From tomorrow the number of these mobile clinics will be doubled.
In addition, on 21 July, Médecins du Monde began to distribute the most urgently needed medicines and medical equipment to clinics in Southern Lebanon, based on the needs expressed by the Lebanese teams working there. This distribution of essential material will continue in the coming days.
Finally, an expatriate co-ordinator and surgeon visited Southern Lebanon yesterday in order to assess the hospitals in Saïda and Tyre. They observed that the medical teams in place there are, for the moment, responding to the needs.
The medicines and medical equipment necessary for the emergency response are being taken from stocks assembled in Beirut during the last few days. Médecins du Monde emergency kits, arriving by boat, will boost these supplies from tomorrow.
Press Contact :
Florence Priolet
http://www2.medecinsdumonde.org/contacter/presse