Aceh needs more medicine, not foreign doctors: Aid official

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Tsunami-stricken areas in Indonesia were in need of more medical supplies rather than additional medical workers due to the declining number of patients and the already excessive number of medical workers, a senior aid official said on Monday.

Gunawan, deputy head of the Indonesian Red Cross, said that the number of medical workers in Aceh and North Sumatra had surpassed needs and that no additional medical workers, especially from foreign countries, were needed.

"Therefore, we can reduce the number of medical workers especially as the number of patients visiting field hospitals and health posts is falling anyway. It will be more useful if aid comes more in the form of medical equipment and medicine instead," he told reporters.

The Aceh health agency estimates that there are more than 10,000 local and international medical workers currently working in the province, which was pulverized last month by a 9.0- magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami that claimed more than 200,000 lives.

Approximately 400,000 others are now living in makeshift tents, leaving them highly vulnerable to communicable diseases.

"Besides, the types of diseases that we are facing at the moment are more common illnesses rather than those specifically related to the tsunami," Gunawan argued.

Furthermore, he added, differences in language and culture constrained foreign doctors and nurses, making their assistance in the massive relief effort less than optimal.

World Health Organization (WHO) spokesman Bob Dietz told AFP that he did "not necessarily agree" with Gunawan's assessment.

Dietz said "we are struggling to keep up with the generosity of the rest of the world" in terms of providing medical supplies, equipment and personnel to the provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra.

WHO deputy director-general Jack Chow said last week that while Aceh seemed to have escaped post-tsunami epidemics, "there's still a critical need for primary health care, water, doctors and nurses".

He argued that the heavy wet season in the country meant that diseases like malaria and dengue become more prevalent.

"We have to remain vigilant. I think we are fortunate that we haven't had this spike of communicable illnesses. We can't let our foot off the accelerator."

Chow said the relief effort was now "somewhere between" the emergency phase and the rebuilding phase, and that the health authorities needed to install the "building blocks of clean water and sanitation" to safeguard displaced people.