Communiqué de presse Lebanon emergency: update on MdM’s medical response
Three mobile clinics are currently in operation on the ground: two working in the southern and eastern suburbs of Beirut since Saturday. These are areas where there are many displaced people and where the medical needs were not being met.
A third mobile clinic is today working around Byblos, a town north of Beirut, which has received 20,000 displaced people, particularly in the villages surrounding the town. Each unit is made up of a doctor and a nurse and is carrying out consultations and providing medicines in the centres where the displaced people are gathered.
Médecins du Monde is also supporting two mobile units of the Lebanese organisation AMEL, which are working mainly in Beirut.
Since the launch of the emergency response on 22 July 2006, the mobile units have carried out 600 medical consultations. Médecins du Monde’s team have carried out half the consultations, with AMEL’s mobile clinics carrying out the other half, supported by Médecins du Monde. These consultations allow the teams to deal with infectious diseases and those suffering from chronic diseases, whose treatment has been disrupted.
In addition, an expatriate volunteer surgeon has been in Marjayoun in southern Lebanon since Monday morning in order to evaluate the needs and provide medicine to those displaced. As this surgeon testifies: “Although some of the injured could be taken to Beirut by the Lebanese Red Cross, the situation for those displaced remains extremely worrying, particularly in the village of Klavaa.”
Two tonnes of emergency medical supplies sent by Médecins du Monde arrived in Beirut yesterday by boat to support the emergency response.
Four doctors from Médecins du Monde Greece have also arrived to evaluate the situation, particularly in Saida in southern Lebanon. A team from Médecins du Monde Cyprus is also ready to assist the response.
Once again, Médecins du Monde condemns the restrictions that are preventing them from reaching the victims and calls for an immediate ceasefire, the only way to protect the lives of civilians on all sides.
MdM press office:
Florence Priolet - Annabelle Quénet
00 33 (0)1 44 92 14 31/14 32
infomdm@medecinsdumonde.net
www.medecinsdumonde.org