A group of Egyptian medical specialists has since Monday been providing medical consultancy and treatment to patients in the Jonglei State capital, Bor town.
Dr. Bol Chaw Manyang, the medical director at the Bor State Hospital, said the Egyptian specialists came along with medicine.
“The delegation of the Egyptian consultants consisting of 2 pediatricians, 2 tropical medicine and infectious disease physicians, and one chest medicine consultant started work at the Bor State Hospital on Monday,” Dr. Chaw said. “By 21 February, they will have finished their work. They came with their own medicine worth 500 kilograms.”
He said that the medical camp was progressing well and that the hospital has been overwhelmed by patients seeking treatment.
“The doctors are overwhelmed. Patients come as early as 4 am and doctors work until 7 pm. all medicines are used up except for some injectables,” Dr. Chaw said. “On a daily basis, we receive 700 patients seeking treatment since Monday.”
One Bor resident who identified himself only as Kachuol, said, “I came here to see the doctors because my body is very painful. I heard from the health minister about the Egyptian doctors treating people free of charge. I need good health that is why I came here. I met the doctor and I was given some medicine.”
Dr. Haithem Alshayeb, the representative of the visiting medical specialists, said they are providing the services as part of the Egyptian government’s commitment to helping the people of South Sudan.
He pointed out that they came with a lot of drugs, including antibiotics, to help the flood-stricken people of Bor and that the work was progressing well since they started Monday.
For her part, Atong Kuol Manyang Juuk, the state health minister, applauded the Egyptian doctors for coming to the aid of the Bor people because the state lacks medical specialists.
“If you look at our situation, we know in the hospital we have people who are sick. Some of them have been traveling to Juba and East Africa, including even Egypt and Khartoum. So, if the same doctors with medicines that people go to seek there are here, then people will be able to be attended to,” she said.