Médecins Sans Frontières treats new wounded in Nairobi

Over the past two days, 34 wounded have been treated in Médecins Sans Frontières’s medical health posts in Nairobi’s Mathare and Kibera slums. Among these patients, eight suffered from bullet wounds. Several wounded have been referred to hospitals.

It was in Mathare slum that the Médecins Sans Frontières team has received the most wounded these last days. Between Wednesday 16th and Friday 18th January in the afternoon, two medical health posts in the slum received 32 patients who had been victims of street violence.

On Thursday 17th January, early in the evening, three people with bullet wounds have received emergency care. When their condition stabilised, they were referred to a hospital by ambulance. Two other people with bullet wounds were in a less serious condition and were treated on the spot.

Later in the evening, the Médecins Sans Frontières team received a call concerning three wounded and two dead but could not go to them as movements were too dangerous at night.

On Friday 18th January in Kibera, where Médecins Sans Frontières had reinforced two of its three clinics in order to respond to a potential arrival of wounded, two children have been treated for bullet wounds. One of them was 13-years-old and the other one was even younger. Both had received a bullet in the leg.

Médecins Sans Frontières is supporting the Masaba private hospital to treat nine wounded people brought in on Friday. Four dead were reported in this hospital.

Patients suffered injuries from knives or sticks

The majority of patients, among them two women, suffered injuries from knives or sticks, some of them being very seriously injured. Several patients needed to be transferred to a hospital. The facilities for Médecins Sans Frontières' emergency care remain open in the slums of Mathare and Kibera. In Mathare, two health posts were installed in the Blue House (the Médecins Sans Frontières clinic for treatment of people with HIV and TB) and in the facilities of the National Council of Churches of Kenya. The medical team of fifteen (including five doctors) and eight first aid-workers are based there.

Three ambulances go around the slums and respond to calls for assisting the injured. For the most seriously injured, a system of referral was set up with the public referral hospital and a private hospital. In Kibera, the Kibera South Health Centre and the clinic of Gatwekera, where Médecins Sans Frontières normally offers primary health care and treatment for HIV/Aids, have been prepared for receiving injured people as well.

And Médecins Sans Frontières has organised an ambulance service for transporting seriously wounded people to Masaba hospital, where a Médecins Sans Frontières surgeon and anaesthesist are supporting the staff since Friday, bringing in also surgical materials.

For more information, contact Sally McMillan on 0447 482 379, (02) 8570 2611 or sally.mcmillan(at)sydney.msf.org