The people of Elele town in Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State have benefitted from an intense medical program put together by the Medical Mission For Peace in conjunction with AMERICARES and Elele Health Association.
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The program, which was held recently at the Rotimi Amaechi Center for Empowerment (RACE) Elele, was basically targeted at providing free healthcare for residents of the area who are least likely to afford it. The medical team of Physicians, Nurses, Pharmacists, Medical Laboratory Technicians, Medical Assistants and crowd control personel, treated different ailments including athritis, diabetes, malaria, typhoid fever, high blood pressure, as well as bacterial infections.
The two-day programme ran from 9am to 6pm each day. We treated 782 cases of Malaria and Typhoid, 253 cases with uncontrolled hypertension, 75 patients cases of obese, 10 had congestive heart failure, 12 had abnormal heart rhythm, 177 cases of diabetes, 214 had Arthritis and 57 treated for abdominal ulcer.
At the pharmacy patients with chronic received medications. Every patient who was seen by the received an assortment of over the counter medications including analgesics and vitamin supplements. The people who showed up and registration had vital sign screening, diabetes and hypertension counseling slso various over the counter medications, including vitamin supplements, cough, cold
remedies and analgesics . We recorded 703 patients with visual problems (as young as 6 months and as old as 90 years), and several patients in their twenties were treated for diabetes.
According to the team, “the youngest patient with glaucoma was 22 yrs old. We had an ‘autorefractor reading of ‘ unable to read’ because it exceeded +/-10,00D limit. He was +10-00D in both eyes. We did not have any +10.00D glasses with us, but we did have +8.50D with a bifocal. We also had a child with severe left eyelid ptosis. We found she had a corneal ulcer for over a week, and we started her on a pulse dose of vigamox (antibiotic drop). ”
Sunglasses were a hit, especially the kids’ sunglasses, because patients under 20 years of age were all dilated. Patients loved receiving a new pair of glasses and were very grateful. The patients’ faces radiated with palpable joy as each of them had the eyeglasses stuck on their faces, discovering a new world around them”, he said. While also identifying some challenges associated with the program, such as low workforce/volunteer pool, limited geographic area targeted, insufficient drugs, and short program duration, Dr. Nnamdi said, ” we ran out of drugs and had to make purchases at retail in the open market. We also had to shut down and turn away patients due to short duration. ”
On his part, founder, Medical Vision for Peace, Dr. Ogu Emejuru , who is also the publisher, medicalvisions.org expressed gratitude to AmeriCares for donating the medical supplies and drugs. He thanked CHIMATEMS LLC for their support in providing additional drugs for the exercise and lauded the efforts of all the healthcare volunteers from the community that gave up their time to improve community wellness.
He particularly expressed appreciation to Dr. Ike Nlerem, President of Elele Health Association, and Ms. Janet Obunwo, a prominent Nurse based in New York, for their contributions to the success of the program. Dr. Emejuru also donated 600 readers myopic single-vision glasses and sunglasses for the program. Meanwhile, during the follow-up debriefing, Medical Visions for Peace and Elele Health Association pledged a yearly free medical mission for the people while also seeking support from members of the community.
Beneficiaries of the programme, which includes older adults and children, expressed happiness for the medical intervention.
In sum, a total of 1,709 patients were treated during the exercise.
