UAE Red Crescent Save lives in Socotra [Archives:2005/900/Local News]

Sana'a, Nov. 29 ) The Embassy of the United Arab Emirates had a dinner reception on the honor of the medical delegation of the UAE Red Crescent Authority in Tuesday, 29th of November. The team that arrived to Yemen on the beginning of November to participate in the third campaign for fighting malaria launched also a campaign to fight eye diseases in Socotra Island.

With the cooperation of the world health organization (WHO) and the Ministry of Public Health and Population, the medical team of UAE Red Crescent, consisting of 8 doctors, visited many governorates in Yemen to test and offer medical aids to those who undergo Malaria. In this regard, the team contributed in the construction of 16 centers to fight malaria, the distribution of 15000 net beds, 500 kg of insecticides, 21 microscopes and 3000 slices. According to Dr. Salah Musa Altay, head of the delegation of the UAE Red Crescent Authority, there are more than a million and half infections of Malaria are registered yearly in Yemen, whereas many neighboring countries managed to get rid of this disease.

The medical team, with cooperation of Ministry of Public Health and Population, visited Socotra Island to launch a campaign for fighting eye disease. The campaign aimed to test the patients, offer medicines and operate surgeries if required. “We diagnosed and test 2100 patients and we operated 155 operations, mostly were for glaucoma, cataract, transplantation of lenses, and curettage of cornea, in the campaign that was in the Hudibu Hospital” Dr. Altay said. He added that the hospital had a shortage of equipments and doctors, therefore the team was divided into three groups: one to test the patients, second to perform the operations, and the third to travel around the island to offer the aids to the patients. The team visited many villages like Srihan, Daishas, and Mumi. He added that “many times we had to test many patients that undergo different diseases that were unrelated to eye diseases”. As an example, he referred to the car accident that occurred to the football team in the island during the existence of the medical team in the island. He said that the Red Crescent team shared affectively in treating the 19 people injured in the accident.

According to the press statement of the delegation, there were many difficult cases that couldn't be treated in the hospital of the island, so they were transmitted to the Red Crescent in Abu Dhabi for treatment.

Dr. Mohammed Alnumi, Minister of Public Heath and Population stated that Yemen benefited from its joining the medical sector of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), referring to the grants and the aids that are offered by the GCC in general and UAE in particular. Dr. Abbas Al-Motawakil, deputy Minister of Public Health and Population said to Yemen Times that it is not the first cooperation between the ministry and the Red Crescent of UAE. According to Dr. Al-Motawakil, the UAE Red Crescent offered 154 medical projects to the Republic of Yemen and keeps on cooperating with the ministry by sending medical delegations, and medical equipments. Answering the question of the reason of the campaign for fighting eye disease in Socotra Island, Dr. Al-Motawakil explained that the eye diseases campaign usually does not need a lot of preparations or expensive tools or equipments.

The ambassador of UAE, Mr. Ali Sif Sultan in Yemen said that the cooperation between Yemen and the UAE Red Crescent Authority would continue. He confirmed that Shaikh Hamdan Bin Zaid Al Nahyan, the chief of UAE Red Crescent, has called for medical reports to be prepared in order to enable the authority to evaluate the medical and humanitarian fields in which Yemen needs support. In particular, the support of cancer centers, handicaps' centers and heart operations centers.

The UAE Red Crescent authority was established in Yemen in 1996. It aims at offering humanitarian and medical help to Yemeni people. According to the statistics of the UAE Red Crescent authority, there are 1252 projects that adopted by the UAE Red Crescent Authority in Yemen.
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