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Israeli Defense Forces Medical Corps Humanitarian Mission for Kosovo's Refugees

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 June 2012

Howard Amital*
Affiliation:
Medical Corps, Israeli Defense Forces, Israel
Michael L Alkan
Affiliation:
Medical Corps, Israeli Defense Forces, Israel
Jakov Adler
Affiliation:
Medical Corps, Israeli Defense Forces, Israel
Iyzhak Kriess
Affiliation:
Medical Corps, Israeli Defense Forces, Israel
Yehezkel Levi
Affiliation:
Medical Corps, Israeli Defense Forces, Israel
*
9 Nahal Taninim Street, Modiin 71700 Israel, E-mail: amitalh@netvision.net.il

Abstract

In April 1999, during the crisis in Kosovo, the Israeli government launched a medical, field hospital in order to provide humanitarian aid to the Albanian refugees that fled from their homes in Kosovo. This facility was set up by the Medical Corps of the Israeli Defense Forces, in a refugee camp located in Northern Macedonia. During the 16 days during which the hospital functioned, the medical staff treated 1,560 patients and hospitalized >100. The field hospital served as a referral center for all of the other primary clinics that were hastily erected in the camp and its surroundings. This communication elaborates on the various aspects of the humanitarian medical aid that were provided by this medical facility and the conclusions that learned from such a mission.

Type
Special Reports
Copyright
Copyright © World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine 2003

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