Wamena, Jubi – The health care team of Province Papua assisted by the Health Office of Nduga Regency, which was deployed to provide health services in sub-districts affected by gun conflict in Nduga, has returned to Wamena after serving the community.
Based on three days health examination (from 8 to 10 January 2019) implemented in sub-districts of Mbua, Dal and Mbulmu Yalma, they found common diseases appeared among the refugees.
The health care team coordinator dr Beery I. S Wopari explained this happened due to lacking food supplies. “In our struggling to overcome the geographical challenge during the services, there are indeed some diseases that dominantly found among adults and children,” he told reporters in Wamena on Friday evening (11/1/2019).
He added that his team found many cases of joint and bone pain as well as the pain in the entire body and headache. There are also some cases of high blood pressure among men and women.
Meanwhile for children, infants and toddlers, the common diseases found in respiratory infectious diseases such as flu and cough as well as diarrhoea, intestinal worms and wounds. They also found some pregnant women among the refugees.
Many children also have wounds in their body as a result of falling in the running.
Dr Wopari also revealed that there are three adults wounded by gunshot, but they didn’t come to treatment so that the team only gave medication to reduce pain.
Meanwhile, a member of health care team Elianus Tabuni admitted that the deployed team has 16 people consisting of specialists, medical practitioners, and nurses and assisted by a team from the Health Office of Nduga Regency. The three days services concentrated in three sub-districts, Mbua, Dal and Mbulmu Yalma, Nduga Regency plus Ilekma Sub-district, Jayawijaya Regency because many people fled to Wamena.
The team also planned to go to Yigi Sub-district in the third day, but due to an unfavourable situation, they returned to Wamena to continue their service there.
“We communicated with the military regarding the update situation in Yigi. They suggested us not to come to the area because of gunshots arbitrary caught in this area. We assumed it was a bad sign for us to continue our journey to Yigi Sub-district,” said Elianus Tabuni.
He also admitted besides the geographical difficulties and cold weather, people who come for treatment didn’t trust them for the first time.
They might be traumatic thus they ever questioned us whether we came to help them, to provide health services or another else,” said Tabuni. (*)
Reporter: Islami Adisubrata
Editor: Pipit Maizier
