Doctors on boats treat ailing flood victims

A boat is the only means of transportation in Gugo, Calumpit in Bulacan after the village was submerged in water due to the rains spawned by Typhoons “Pedring” and “Quiel”. LYN RILLON/INQUIRER

Over a hundred physicians on Wednesday combed waterlogged villages in remote areas of Central Luzon to treat ailing flood victims at the start of a “Doctors on Boats” project.

The Philippine Medical Association (PMA) launched the project amid the rising incidence of diseases and the refusal of villagers to leave their homes a week after Typhoons “Pedring” and “Quiel” struck.

Initially, 15 teams composed of 10 doctors, psychiatrists and psychosocial counselors have been mobilized to deal with ailing victims in “unserved” areas in Bulacan, Pampanga and Tarlac, Dr. Mike Aragon, PMA spokesperson, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer by phone.

“Our calamity-stricken people, most especially children and the elderly, are now threatened by various diseases due to their untimely exposure to an unfavorable environment,” Dr. Oscar Tinio, PMA president, said in a statement.

Tinio said that in many of these areas flooding prevented access to regular health services.

“If our patients there cannot go to their doctors, in critical times like this, their doctors will go to them on board rubber boats,” said Tinio.

House-to-house calls

The project will give priority to areas where people have refused to go to evacuation centers, according to the PMA.  “We won’t operate in evacuation centers because there are units already serving them,” Aragon said.

The teams were expected to visit typhoon victims suffering from waterborne diseases, upper respiratory tract infections, skin diseases, fever and diarrhea, among other illnesses that usually spread during calamities, he noted.

The PMA, an umbrella organization of practicing doctors in the country, first launched the “Doctors on Boats” program in the wake of Tropical Storm “Ondoy” in September 2009.

On board rubber boats, medical doctors and psychosocial counselors braved the floods to conduct house-to-house calls in inaccessible areas, bringing with them vital medicines, relief goods and drinking water to families trapped in their homes.