The Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), has strategized to deliver healthcare delivery services to victims of Boko Haram insurgency in Borno. The victims are currently taking refuge in 45 Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps and host communities, including Zabarmari, where 47 farmers were slain by insurgents last November. MSF in a statement yesterday (Tuesday) in Maiduguri, disclosed that; a simplified effective methods are being adopted to deliver essential healthcare services to victims of insurgency.
“In Borno communities, including Zabarmari, are however insecure for our health mobile team to adopt effective methods to provide children with essential healthcare,” said Isa Ibrahim, the MSF mobile team leader. On the adopted healthcare delivery system, he said: “We train a person from each of the neighborhoods to carry out the rapid malaria tests and malnutrition screening. “Our mobile health team also provides appropriate medication when a child’s condition is serious or hard to determine,” he said; adding that referrals are made to MSF hospital Maiduguri, the state capital.According to him; “Children living in hard-to-reach villages have access to basic healthcare every day, at any time they need it.”
Besides, he added: ““As we cannot directly work in Zabarmari, we have engaged members of the community and trained them in how to perform basic tasks, like test-and-treat malaria. “We also refer patients who require additional management to Gwange or Fori hospitals in Maiduguri.” He said despite security challenges in working outside cities of the state, teams from MSF teams have been running mobile clinics to provide basic healthcare to children under 16. He said the targeted communities include Dusuman, Musari and Ahmed Grema IDPs’ camps in Shuwari.
While lamenting inaccessibility to healthcare, he said: “The people have limited access to medical care, as the few local clinics that exist are desperately short of essential medications. “They also charge for their services, putting them out of most people’s reach.” The delivery of healthcare, could however depend on the security situation and the people’s medical needs in IDP comps and host communities. He said between August and December, 2020, MSF’s mobile team provided 6,881 consultations for children living in villages outside Maiduguri.
“We tested 6,463 children for malaria and treated 2,260 children for the disease,” he said, noting that 18 referrals were made to hospitals. According to him, MSF treated 71 children for severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and 190 for moderate acute malnutrition. He added that MSF’s medical teams in the state provided emergency treatment, surgery, and malnutrition treatment, maternity and antenatal services. Other healthcare services provided include vaccinations, and the prevention and treatment of malaria and other diseases.
