Medicine International (MI) Drs Herb Sigmond and Mark Stinson performed rapid health assessments and provi
ded of healthcare using two mobile clinics in the northeastern Albanian town of Kukes. They arrived in Albania just days after the mass exodus begun across the Kosovo border. The city had swollen to over 120,000 people from a usual population less than 30,000. Mobile tent clinics saw hundreds of patients per day with illnesses common to displaced people. The physicians staffing other clinics were primarily done by Albanian physicians brought in from the capital, Tirana. Many of these physicians were unwilling to travel to the north because of fears banditry, violence, and crime. The experience brought to the situation by Drs. Sigmond and Stinson instilled confidence in the local physicians empowering them travel to the frontier and treat their fellow Kosovar brothers. Upper respiratory infections were rampant, as were urinary tract infections, skin infections, diarrhea, and virtually all forms of infectious disease. World Health Organization and UNICEF medicine and equipment were utilized by MI in our effort. We met daily with other international relief groups to help coordinate the medical care of the refugees. We also communicated regularly with U.S. State Department representatives briefing them on the situation on the ground. Given the political instability, official U.S. personnel could not travel away from their compounds without an armed escort, making their data collection very difficult without our help.
