Diarrhea, inadequate drugs on the rise in Maiduguri IDP camps

Reported cases of diarrhea and vomiting are on the increase both in Maiduguri town and at Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in the state where mostly children are being treated daily despite shortage of bed space at public hospitals and acute shortage of drugs at the camps. Though over 500 cases of diarrhea and vomiting […]

Reported cases of diarrhea and vomiting are on the increase both in Maiduguri town and at Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in the state where mostly children are being treated daily despite shortage of bed space at public hospitals and acute shortage of drugs at the camps.
Though over 500 cases of diarrhea and vomiting have so far been registered at various IDP camps in the Borno State capital, Maiduguri, 108 other cases of the same ailments were registered at Nursing Home, Maiduguri, also known as Muhammadu Shuwa Memorial Hospital and specialized in handling children cases.
The Nursing Home Hospital Secretary, Alhaji Ibrahim Abba who said 23 cases of diarrhea and vomiting were recorded in the hospital in April, 22 in May, 61 in June and 60 in July, warned that unless serious steps are taken to address the situation, the number of diarrhea and vomiting cases may increase in September with the rainy season becoming heavier.
He attributed the cause of the ailment among the people of the state to poor personal hygiene and contamination of drinking water, saying unless the people are sensitized on how to sanitize their environment, the situation will grow worst as rain continues to fall.
A doctor in the hospital, Zubairu Abdullahi said open defecation as commonly practiced among the people is also a major cause of the disease especially when rain flushes the stool into a source of drinking water.
A health educator in the state, Mrs Habiba Gambo said efforts have been intensified towards educating people on how to improve their personal hygiene, and called on community leaders to mobilize their subjects to clear all drainages in their areas to provide passage for dirty water and to avoid contamination of drinking water.
Camps hosting IDPs in Maiduguri are now described as punishment grounds where internally displaced persons live in very dirty environment without proper medication and poor feeding arrangement.
80 -year -old Alhaji Modu Yanari is one of the IDPs at Tsimari IDPs camp in Maiduguri who complained of poor feeding, improper medication and corrupt state officials manning the camps.
“They are serving us tasteless and very insufficient food. Look at the store where they are supposed to be keeping drugs, the place is empty. The drugs were removed by officials manning the camp. Even when they bring food items to us, unless we rush and share immediately, they must come and take from it,” he said.
Chairman of the camp, Sanda Lawal who said Tsimari is the smallest of all the camps in Maiduguri with only 1,331 IDPs, said most of the people in the camp are only being attended to by Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) who come around with medical personnel to administer drugs to them.
“Those people you are seeing over there represent an NGO. We complained to them that we do not have toilets, our people are hungry, some are sick and there are no drugs in the camp, we need mosquito nets and so on. They promised to assist us. It is only when they come around that we get such support,” he said.  
When contacted, President of an NGO, Non-Violent Peace Initiative, Mohammed Sahnun Idris said he was in the camp to donate 15 cartons of Indomie, two bags of rice, 24 plastic jugs and N50,000 but was shocked to realize that the IDPs in the camp are being neglected.
He said: “Most of them are sick and there are no drugs in the camp. We had to mobilize health workers to attend to them. We also had to go and buy 50 mosquito nets and 10 cartons of soap for them because they look unkept. They do not have toilets in this camp. Male and female are defecating behind the building in the open. We shall construct toilets for them.”
He said that they have realized that some of the female IDPs have trades like tailoring, knitting and the rest but do not have capital to practice adding that they will retrain and empower them to be self reliant.
Leader of the medical team mobilized to the camp by the group, Idris Usman a staff nurse said the IDPs complained of malaria, diarrhea and vomiting, ulcer and high fever. He said about 53 adults and 20 children were attended saying the ailments reported could be traced to poor personal hygiene, dirty environment and poor feeding.
40- year- old Hajiya Ruwaiya and seven- year-old Sade Abdu who were treated for abdominal pains, fever, heart precipitation, vomiting and cough both admitted that they have not been getting enough food to eat in the camp.
“Before the 2015 general election, we were getting enough food to eat. Sometimes, they will even slaughter cow for us in this camp. When one is sick, they will give you proper medication. Since after the election things changed. Now you hardly see food to eat,” Ruwaiya said.