Georgia: two months on

13 October 2008

In Gori and Tbilisi, the MSF teams continue to provide medical and psychological care to displaced persons, distribute essential non-food items and provide health facilities, with medicines, for people in need.

Whilst the situation in Georgia seems to have stabilised with the retreat of Russian forces from its territory, the future of those people displaced by the war remains uncertain. According to the Georgian authorities, nearly 60,000 people are still displaced within the interior of the country, living in public buildings or tented camps. MSF, who has been treating patients infected with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in Georgia for several years, has been able to offer assistance to the civilian population from the outset of hostilities in early August 2008.

Medical and psychological care for displaced persons in Gori. Situated between Tbilisi and South Ossetia, the town of Gori currently harbours some 7,000 displaced persons, mainly from the surrounding villages of South Ossetia. Since early September, MSF has been providing these people with medical care in some 30 temporary camps. Three medical teams criss-cross these different sites and if necessary refer the patients to a central polyclinic. Thus 1,200 medical consultations have been done in one month.
Since 8 September a team of psychologists has also been paying regular visits to the displaced. Nearly 600 people have already taken part in group sessions organised by MSF teams, and around a hundred people have received individual psychological care.

Distributions of blankets. Despite considerable international mobilisation to support Georgia and the massive presence of aid workers on the ground, certain essential non-food items have still not reached the displaced. In Gori, as winter approaches, a number of people had still not received blankets; consequently the MSF teams distributed nearly 2,000.

Medical supplies for the Mejereskhivi district, the “buffer zone” between Georgia and South Ossetia. In mid-September, various medicines were given to the district clinic, particularly for patients suffering from chronic pathologies. Nearly 600 of these patients should thus receive their treatment. Another donation is planned so that the clinic can continue meeting their needs for the next three months.

Medical care for displaced persons in Tbilisi. The MSF teams, who have been working amongst the displaced persons in Tbilisi since early August, continue to provide medical care in nine temporary camps harbouring some 4,000 persons. In September, 1,200 medical consultations were carried out. A quarter of them involved patients suffering from chronic pathologies. Some 140 people have also received psychological support.

MSF has been treating patients suffering from MDR-TB in Georgia for several years. The two regular programmes, one of which is situated in the autonomous region of Abkhazia, continue to run normally.