Rohingya refugees fleeing violence in Myanmar are packed in crowded camps in neighbouring Bangladesh, where many urgently need medical attention. A group of surgeons has braved challenging conditions to help members of Myanmar’s Muslim minority in the Tangkali refugee camp. Many of the ailments the refugees are suffering from are easily treatable if properly diagnosed and given the right treatment at the start. But harsh living conditions in the refugee camps and the lack of basic health facilities are worsening patients’ conditions. A medical delegation of highly skilled specialists recently travelled to Tangkali camp, near the Myanmar border, to provide much-needed treatment to hundreds of refugees. Physicians Across Continents (PAC), an international medical humanitarian organisation, partnered with Lonely Orphans, a UK-based NGO working with displaced Rohingyas, to bring 10 doctors, mostly surgeons, from Palestine, Sudan, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to Tangkali camp, close to Balukhali camp. The doctors saw around 500 patients in less than seven days and undertook 100 surgical procedures including 10 major ones in a hospital in the nearby town of Cox’s Bazaar. They say that most of the cases that came to them were easily treatable, in normal conditions, but made worse because of the refugees’ lack of access to basic health care or even clean water in the camps. Degrading conditions It was Syed Ikhlaas‘s second humanitarian trip to the Rohingya refugee camps in Banglagesh. But the head of programmes and operations for Lonely Orphans is still taken aback by how “degrading and humiliating” the Rohingyas’ situation is now. Back in Myanmar’s Rakhine state some of them enjoyed a fairly good life as teachers or doctors, he points out. “There are children, even adults, defecating in public because they don’t have toilet facilities,” Ikhlaas reports. “We’ve noticed … very dirty water. They have to walk at least a mile, two miles to reach some water. “These camps are extremely condensed. The location is very sandy. There is a lot of dust and sand in the air. The children are playing in this. There are a lot of cases of breathing difficulties. We had… asthmatic cases… pneumonia. A lot of women had issues with thyroids… so severe they needed operations.” Dr Jamal Ghosheh, a Palestinian neurosurgeon who led the medical delegation, said that there were recurrent cases of patients who were not correctly diagnosed or given the right treatment. He cited cases of hydrocephalus (water in the brain) which can be cured by diverting the excess fluid through a tube inserted in the brain down to the abdomen. “As a neurosurgeon, I saw a number of patients with spine problems and peripheral nerve injuries because of gunshots to their legs and arms,” says Ghosheh. A neurosurgeon with some 20 years’ experience, he is also one of the founders of Physicians Across Continents and is currently working in private hospitals in the West Bank and Gaza as well as in various countries in the region. Five-year-old shot in leg A clinic was set up in Tangkali camp for the doctors to treat the Rohingyas, from elderly to infants. The working conditions were quite challenging, as the most basic facilities are not available. “The challenges were tremendous,” explains Ghosheh. “You need a simple blood test, there is no way you can get that in the camp; you need an X-ray there is no way you can get this. We did not have an ambulance. We did not have the basic equipment, staff and follow-up on these patients.” Among the hundreds of patients, the case of five-year-old Minara stands out. The little girl was “deliberately” shot in the knee by a Myanmar policeman while attempting to cross the border into Bangladesh with her family, they say. As was the case for many other Rohingyas, their house was burnt down and th