FIMA Year Book 2010-2011 - Federation of Islamic Medical ...

EDITORIAL
isolation of affected women. The most common cause of these fistulae is neglected obstructed
usually unattended deliveries. This is the result of lack of proper maternity services especially in
remote / rural areas of the underdeveloped countries. In a sense, these fistulae are almost
completely preventable with proper maternity care, and mostly correctable by surgery. However,
the surgical repair involves delicate and skilled operative technique and needs to be performed by
especially trained gynecologic surgeons. These conditions are almost non-existent in many of the
poor developing countries. FIMA formed teams, the first of which arrived in Darfur, Sudan in 2008.
So far, four camps carried out 167 surgical repairs in Sudan. Similar camps were arranged in
Afghanistan and Pakistan with 89% success rate.
Another equally important program is FIMA Save Smile (FSS) aimed at surgical repair of facial
clefts. Dr Parvaiz Malik discusses this program. Cleft lip / palate is a relatively common congenital
malformation with an incidence of 1/700 live births. FSS was formally adopted by FIMA executive
Council on March 14,2010 in its meeting in Makka, Saudi Arabia. A team of US physicians, members
of the Islamic Medical Association of North America (IMANA) performed 62 repairs in Khartoum,
Sudan with excellent results during March 2010. Local plastic surgeons participated to get training
in these procedures, and the surgical equipment was donated. The IMANA team returned to Sudan
in March 2011 and 80 successful surgical repairs were performed. Another camp is planned to
return to Khartoum this year. Meanwhile, DWW-Turkey team surgically corrected 125 cleft lip /
palates in Palestine, Yemen, and Syria, in 2010-2011.
Drs Mohammad Khan, and Mohammed Tariq in another article describe the role that Pakistan IMA
(PIMA) played in providing medical-humanitarian relief work in Pakistan since 2005. During this
period Pakistan had been afflicted with several calamities; destructive earthquakes in 2005,
massive internal displacements of people propelled by military operations of 2009-2010, and the
huge floods of 2010. They describe the contribution and collaboration of several other IMAs and
NGOs in their relief efforts and how all these efforts were coordinated on the ground to result in
a successful outcome. They provide guidelines for PIMA, FIMA, and other relief organizations to
further strengthen the impact of the relief efforts. Some of these guidelines have already been
incorporated by the National Disaster Management Coordination office.
When we think of disaster medical relief, we do not usually think of medical education or regular
training of physicians. But unfortunately this is important in Palestine. The grim situation of being
under the harsh Israeli occupation, and especially the siege of Gaza caused serious damage to
medical education. It created a significant need for outside help especially in training of the
Palestinian physicians in the various medical specialties outside Palestine. This topic is discussed in
an article by Dr Mishal. He describes FIMA’s efforts in this regard. This was accomplished in
conjunction with various institutions and civil charitable organizations. Sponsored electives were
offered to Palestinian medical students mainly at the Islamic Hospital, Amman, Jordan. Residents
from Palestine received specialty training mainly at medical institutions in Jordan. In addition FIMA
sponsored post graduate training of few residents in Egypt, Pakistan, and Malaysia. FIMA also
helped in arranging for some professionals to visit Gaza to support medical training there, but only
for short periods. Telemedicine has been applied in collaboration with the Arab Medical Union of
Egypt and the Jordanian Committee for Supporting the Health Sector in Gaza.
One of the worst examples of man-made disasters is the situation in Gaza / Palestine. Gazans have
been under the harsh Israeli occupation from 1967 to 2005 and the later imposition of siege in
2006.The situation became significantly worse with the military assault in December 2008 and the
FIMA YearBook 2010-2011
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