The health responses, also initially slow, quickly ramped
up. By mid-March, Médicins Sans Frontiéres (MSF) had
opened a satellite clinic at the new Balukhali camp and
IOM had opened one at Kutupalong. Fortuitously, a new
10-bed IOM hospital in Leda had been under construction and was able to open in November. The Leda clinic
now sees 100-150 patients a day for general consultations.
MSF’s monthly caseload in the month before RI’s visit had
more than doubled from pre-October levels. Overall, the
previous number of daily cases seen by the eight health
facilities that existed before October 2016 spiked from
15,000 per month to 21,000 patients seen by the current
11 health facilities today.
One of the most positive aspects of the emergency
response has been the cooperation of the Government
of Bangladesh and NGOs in carrying out immunization
campaigns. Given the measles outbreak and the threat
of cholera, the government worked closely and quickly
to reach tens of thousands of people. The coordinated
response stems from previous cooperation. The govern-
ment has long allowed medical treatment to all people in
the country whether documented or not and has worked
closely with the UN and NGOs to allow immediate care
and to establish a referral system for cases that require
further attention.
But as in other areas, much room for improvement
remains in the area of health. Bureaucratic misunderstandings have led to temporary shut downs of clinics or
barriers to necessary expansion of services. As one health
worker said when asked about the working relationship
with the government, “We are trying our best.” Sanitation
infrastructure and practices also continue to be poor,
increasing risks of disease outbreaks. Community
visits by NGOs trying to foster hygiene awareness and
sanitation infrastructure improvements continue but will
need ongoing support.
Moving from emergency to more sustained response
needs, education is another gap often mentioned by
the Rohingya during interviews with RI. For officially
This Rohingya woman in Kutupalong Makeshift Settlement told RI her husband disappeared just before she left
Myanmar and she still doesn’t know where he is.
10
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