We have completed our project in Patikah. We had a presence there for 7 days. We evacuated via chopper nearly 40 serious patients to Muzafferabad and treated nearly 700 other patients in this area alone. We also had an immunization project which was successful in vaccination of nearly 1000 people in the region. We also sent an advance team further up into the Neelum Valley for 48 hours with Army support and guides. They reached those who could not be reached. They saw nearly 100 patients also. We had direct contact with ICRC as they were in the process of setting up a Basic health unit there. Once their clinic was fully operational we handed over the town to them. This was a coordinated effort at the UN Base camp and on the ground in Patikah.
Doctors Worldwide volunteers have now treated in excess of 6000 patients, today more lives where saved when a case of bloody diarrhoea was identified at a camp we serve in Tariqabad, by acting quickly with the WHO the local water supply was identified and sorted to stop any further cases of dysentry. An area just outside Muzaferrabad has been allocated, today decisions need to be made about what type of structure we can run the clinic from, and the logistical implications of how long this clinic can be run given its poor present access by road. As winter engulfs this area access is becoming an even more acute problem. There are still many villages with little current relief and service. The governments decision today to halt any building either permanent or prefabricated until a seismographic survey of the area is completed means effectively no work will be carried out until after winter. Repair work on existing structures maybe possible but also unlikely.
A clinic near Bagh continues to be served by a lone DWW volunteer, and the IDP camps in Muzaferrabad and Balakot are still seeing many cases every day.