Colombo – IOM yesterday handed over essential drugs and medical equipment worth LKR 2 million (USD 18,000) to the Regional Director of Health Services of Mullathivu for distribution to 10 village health centers and seven divisional hospitals in the war-affected northern district.

Since May 2009, IOM, in partnership with the Ministry of Health, has provided primary health care services to more than 206,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) in northern Sri Lanka, mainly in Vavuniya's Menik Farms IDP camps.

It has also provided primary health care services to support the resettlement of 248,000 of the 300,000 IDPs formerly living in the camps in Mullathivu, Kilinochchi, Jaffna and Mannar districts. Nearly 18,000 IDPs have also used IOM's 16 ambulances during the period.

Mullathivu district, which has received 58,000 returnees from the camps, faces a huge challenge in rebuilding its health care system, due to insufficient medical staff, war-damaged infrastructure and a lack of drugs, according to IOM Sri Lanka Health Programme Manager Dr. Kolitha Wickramage.

IOM's donation includes hospital examination beds, screens, sphygmomanometers, stethoscopes, wound dressing kits, IV drip sets, glucometers and essential medicines.

IDPs and returnees in the north currently face the additional threat of vector borne diseases such as malaria and dengue, as well as water borne diseases, with the onset of the monsoon season, according to Wickramage.

"IOM's approach is to support the Ministry of Health's efforts to rebuild and strengthen the existing health system. Improved primary health care and monsoon preparedness activities, including vector control, are both very high on our list of priorities," he adds.

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For more information please contact: Dr. Kolitha Wickramage, Tel: +94 772518740, E-mail: kwickramage@iom.int