Sri Lanka: US government-funded IOM clinics to provide primary health care for displaced

IOM engineers have completed the first of ten primary health care centres at the rapidly expanding Menik Farm displacement camp in Vavuniya, the government-controlled district southwest of Mullaitivu, where fighting between the government and LTTE Tamil Tigers continues.

With some 125,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) already in the camp and a further 25,000 currently sheltering in schools and public buildings in Vavuniya town expected to be transferred there, government health services in the 1,000-acre camp are stretched to the limit.

The clinics, which will each be initially staffed by two government doctors and two nurses, will provide diagnosis, emergency care, health education and referrals for the IDPs, many of whom are sick, injured and malnourished after multiple displacements and years of poor living conditions during the war. Read more ...