Okello Milton Stephen, medical officer in Olwal camp, Gulu, on the deteriorating health and sanitation situation in IDP camps in Gulu District.
The death rates are very high here especially among young children. Most of the children are malnourished and have weak immunity. Diarrhoea, fungal infections and pneumonia are very common here. Sanitation in the camp is bad and the people are vulnerable to epidemics. The camp is very crowded with very few latrines.
Water is also scarce. All the 25,000 people in this camp depend on only three boreholes. There is only one health centre with four trained medical staff for all these people.
When I refer patients to the main hospital in Gulu, they are not taken there straight away. They just die. This is because people are too scared to travel on the road. There is no single safe road. Last month alone about 150 people died in the camp, mainly from malaria and poor hygienic conditions.
In my clinical assessments, I see that HIV levels are also high among the young ones. We have high HIV/AIDS prevalence in the camps. The sexual lifestyle of people has really changed. There is a lot of rape and prostitution. In some five years to come, a lot of people will develop AIDS. Very few people respond to education on safe sex. Many young men are going after the light skinned Congolese women. There are many of them around camps in northern Uganda. Most of them were brought to Uganda by UPDF soldiers.
I have no constant supply of drugs. The drugs can only come in with the WFP food convoy. You can't transport drugs without military escort. Today I had been expecting to receive some essential medicines to come with the food convoy. But the convoy did not bring any. So I don't know when. In the meantime, my stay here will just be as useless. What is the use of being here when there are no drugs? There are days when I can't come to the camp at all because of the insecurity. I live in Gulu town. Travelling to the camp is too risky. We live in constant fear. We are a constant target. The risk of abduction is very high especially for people like me, because they [LRA] want people to treat them in the bush.
I have no means of communicating with the district health headquarters. This means that during emergencies, when rebels attack, we cannot respond effectively, and many people die. Initially, health officers like myself had radio communication equipment and motorcycles. But all that was withdrawn when rebels began to target us. [Gulu, 25/7/03]
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