3. - usaid

Health Treatment and 'Disease .Prevent ion 'in 'Biaf'ra
Because of the reportedly high death rate and ill health among displaced
persons early in 1968, the medical care and welfare of the people were
accorded top priority by the Biafran Rehabilitation Commission. A meeting
was held on March 28, 1968, attended by representatives of the Ministry of
Health, Rehabilitation Conmission, voluntary agencies, and relief bodies.
A sub-comnittee of the combined group was appointed to advise the Rehabilitation
Connnission on medical matters. The Sub-committee effected the
assigmnent of' one resident nurse to each camp. The Biafra National Red Cross
assigned a team of voluntary workers to each camp, improving hygiene,
organizing transportation of seriously sick remees to the nearest hospitals,
and bringing drugs to the camps. Red Cross personnel also were effective
in identifying children with kwashiorkor and bringing them and other needy
persons to the nutritional clinics fcr attention. Medical work in the camps
was supervised by a medical officer and a nursing or health sister for
each zone. They held at least one clinic a week in each camp.
Mobile medical clinics provided medical support at the feeding centers.
Medical and health officials administered vitamin and iron tablets to those
requiring them at the feeding centers and referred all serious cases of
kwashiorkor to sickbays or hospitals. Facilities available for the treatment
of BiafYan chlldren in hospitals had been reduced by war, and at the
height of the kwashiorkor crisis, the need for makeshifi hospitals for the
intensive treatment of the disease became imperative. The first kwashiorkor
sickbays were set up by voluntary agency workers, and the Rehabilitation
CorrPnission Medical Sub-Committee extended the idea to all provinces,
stirmrlating local interest in their institution and suggesting one sickbay
for every 15 refugee camps. They also laid down nominal requirements in
staffing and equipment before establishing the sickbays, for example:
92 kwashiorkor sickbays had been established by December 1968, caring for
6,620 persons. In the camps, feeding centers, and sickbays, there were
about 600 nurses, 60 nursing/health sisters, and 25 senior medical students.
Their work was supervised by 40 doctors.
Inoculation pr-ograms against smallpox were carried out in many of the
Biafran camps early in the war, but vaccinations against measles, polio,
pertussis, and tetanus were delayed. In January, 1969, inoculation programs
for measles and smallpox for Biafran children were begun, with the joint
participation of pediatricians of the University of Biaf'ra Medical School,
Biaf'ran Ministry of Health, UNICEF, and ICRC (through which the U. S.
Agency for International Development provided funds for the irmmization
programs). Although there had been some outbreaks of measles, no major
measles epidemics had occurred in Biaf'ra through December, 1968. By June
15, 726,851 had been vaccinated against measles and 1,826,Ul against
smallpox.
Comon diseases among the displaced persors included malaria, dysentery,
infectious childhood diseases, tuberculosis, undermutrition, malnutrition,
hookworm, worms, and othe~s.