Mercy Malaysia Sends Medical Personnel To Assist Rohingya Refugees

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 3 (Bernama) -- Malaysian Medical Relief Society (MERCY Malaysia) will be deploying some 60 medical personnel to two Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh in the next six months, said its president, Dr Ahmad Faizal Mohd Perdaus. He said in view of the drastic influx of Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh due to the violence in Myanmar's northern Rakhine state, urgent medical attention needed to be given to pregnant women and children as there might be a cholera outbreak and other water borne diseases. “MERCY which will be operating from Balukhali and Thangkali refugee camps would need some RM5 million to provide healthcare to the Rohingya. "While we hope the situation will improve in the next few months through better coordination among government, military, United Nations agencies as well as civil societies, the reality is the camps will be in deplorable conditions," he said at a press conference here Tuesday. He said the Bangladeshi health ministry would be conducting mass cholera vaccination soon to 500,000 refugees, and MERCY would assist in terms of medical assistance and to address the water, sanitary and hygiene concerns. Dr Ahmad Faizal also said that currently, MERCY Malaysia has four representatives to conduct medical assistance at two clinics for the refugees there. "Over the span of six months, 12 teams will be sent over, with the rotation period of two weeks. As medical need for pregnant women arises, there are plans to expand the service to include ante-natal and post-natal care. There are also plans to turn one of the clinics into a maternity unit to reduce burden on existing government health facilities," he said. According to statistics provided by International Office of Migration (IOM), as of Oct 1, some 507,000 new refugees have fled the crisis state and the Bangladesh military has designated 12 main camps for them. Two of the main camps, Kutupalong and Balukhali are in the district of Cox Bazar, home to more than half of the refugees that had fled their crisis state. -- BERNAMA