MAF flights for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) have helped bring some of the essential medical supplies to support their three mobile clinics in Renk.
The MSF team on the ground are receiving an influx of refugees coming over the border fleeing the conflict in Sudan.
The sheer number of refugees arriving in Renk makes conditions challenging for the refugees - with a lack of food, shelter, sanitation facilities and clean water. As well as providing medical care, MSF are treating river water to make it safe to drink.
The medical freight carried by MAF includes basic supplies like latex gloves, malaria tests and oral re-hydration solution, needed to treat conditions including acute watery diarrhoea, malaria, respiratory tract infections and eye infections caused by the poor living conditions in the camps.
MSF teams screen for patients who need specialist medical care or mental health support. They are also carrying out health education, as an essential line of defence against preventable diseases, screening for malnutrition in children, and conducting catch-up measles vaccinations reaching 1,469 children so far.
The priority is containing the outbreak of measles which is spreading quickly in cramped conditions. MSF responds urgently when cases are identified, admitting the sick to their measles isolation ward. 247 cases and seven deaths had been reported in Renk by 25 of June according to the World Health Organisation.
Four tons of freight that has reached Renk so far with MAF is helping people like Awel Shoul, and his brother who was undergoing medical treatment in Khartoum and about to have surgery when they fled. The brothers arrived with nothing after they were robbed of their belongings, cash and mobile phones.
As the conflict continues to rage, resupplying the teams on the ground, responding to the increasing need is essential.
