Tsunami refugees cry out for medical help

Apriadi Gunawan The Jakarta Post/Medan

Nursiah, a refugee from Peusong Baru village in Lhokseumawe, North Aceh -- one of the areas hardest hit by Sunday's crushing tsunami and earthquake -- was pleading for doctors to immediately tend to her two children at the refugee camp in Hira field.

She had brought her children to a makeshift health center early in the morning, but volunteers were hesitant to treat them because medical supplies were running low.

The 25-year-old woman was worried because her children, Teja, two-and-a-half years old, and Husnah, 6, had been suffering high fever for three days.

Teja looked frail in his mother's arms, while Husnah was sitting limply on a stool next to them.

"Sir, please treat my children quickly. They have very high fevers," Nursiah shouted to a number of volunteers at the health center.

But, there was nothing much they could do, except to refer her to a hospital.

A fellow villager suffering from a respiratory problem and headaches, Norman Zainal, 28, had the same experience. He only received two of the five kinds of medicine that he needed due to a shortage of supplies at the camp.

A doctor at the health post in the Hira refugee camp, Rahmat Suryadi, said that the most common diseases suffered by disaster victims the refugee camp were diarrhea, fevers, skin irritations, respiratory infections, headaches and stomach problems.

The Lhokseumawe health office has deployed 15 doctors, assisted by 65 volunteers from various organizations, to help more than 20,000 refugees languishing across Lhokseumawe after the tsunami devastated the already troubled province.

"Actually, we are prepared in term of manpower to assist the tsunami victims, but unfortunately drug supplies are very limited, which has hampered medical treatment," Rahmat told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

A medical volunteer from Mer-C in Lhokseumawe, Cut Syamsuniarti, said that medical supplies in the town have been depleted. Only medicines for coughs, hypertension, skin ailments and fever were still available at the moment.

She said that stocks from hospitals in Lhokseumawe has now run out.

"Medical supplies at the Indonesian Red Cross and Cut Meutia hospitals are running low. If supplies from the central government don't reach here in two days time, we cannot promise that patients can get their badly needed medicines," Cut told the Post.

The secretary of the North Aceh disaster mitigation command center, T. Nadirsyah, 43, said that not a single medicine has arrived from Jakarta thus far and that medicine was still being dispensed by the North Aceh regental administration.

"We don't know when medical supplies will arrive. The delays are worrying us because around 90 percent of 20,020 refugees languishing in 22 districts across Lhokseumawe are now facing serious depression and are vulnerable to various diseases," he said.

Nadirsyah said that most refugees suffering from depression were those stranded in the districts of Saenuddon, Tanah Pasir, Lhoksukon and Muara Batu.

A volunteer doctor from the Marine Hospital in Surabaya, East Java, Capt. Pardjono, concurred, saying that a considerable number of his patients were suffering from depression, which could make them vulnerable to post-tsunami diseases.