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New access for MSF teams in Bajo Atrato region, Colombia


NEWS | 16 November 2007

After months of work and negotiations with armed groups, MSF has managed to access the Bajo Atrato region in Choco, Colombia. During the week of November 5, an MSF mobile clinic visited several communities isolated by the conflict along the river corridor of Truando, south of Riosucio, the municipal capital. The team offered vaccinations for hundreds of children under five and medical attention for the general population. The area has been affected by violence and blocked by confrontation between armed groups, and people in rural areas have not received a visit from a medical team for several years. This region has the worst health indicators in the country, suffers periodic floods, and hosts a population extremely vulnerable to the most common diseases. Earlier this year, around 40 children died in the area, affected by moderate malnutrition and diahorrea, most likely caused by rotavirus. MSF's plans are to continue the vaccination campaign in the coming weeks in other river corridors along the Atrato (including immunization against rotavirus), and to complete a medical and nutritional assessment in order to define further operations in the area. Parallel to the mobile clinics in the rivers, MSF continues to offer maternal health care, treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, care for victims of sexual violence, and mental health services for the most vulnerable in Riosucio, along with support for patients being referred to second level care for emergency cases.


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