Médecins Sans Frontières - Walk & Talk Machar Colony Clinic

Unique Identifier Code / URN MSF321769

Date taken / Date Recorded 19/11/2019 12:00 AM

Country Pakistan

Commissioning section MSF-BELGIUM

Photographer / videographer / producer Black Box Sounds

Copyright Black Box Sounds

Usage Rights (MSF) Advertising Campaign, External Media, MSF Fundraising, MSF Publications, Social Media

Formal Consent Copy available no

Editor's rating ★★★ (F)

Video format h264 (Main) (avc1 / 0x31637661)

Duration 3m35s

Maximum Size 1920px × 1080px 415.08 MB

Additional Information / Shotlist TEXT ON SCREEN: Dr Muhammad Khawar Aslam
Hello, I’m Dr Khawar Aslam and we are here in Machar Colony, one of the largest slum areas in Karachi, Pakistan.
It’s located near the fish harbour and sea and has a population of around 150,000 people. The people living here are in very unsanitary conditions and have limited access to healthcare and clean drinking water.
The population of Machar Colony largely belongs to low socio-economic status. Moreover, there is hardly any free, quality healthcare in Machar Colony and therefore people go to local health practitioners for their health issues.
Hepatitis C is one of the major health issues identified in Machar Colony. 20 to 30 per cent of the population of Machar is infected with hepatitis C. This is extremely high as compared with 5 to 10 per cent of the population in Pakistan in general.
MSF established a hepatitis C clinic in Machar Colony back in 2015. Usually in Pakistan, the hepatitis C patient needs to go to a big tertiary care hospital for the diagnosis and the management and the treatment. But here, MSF provides diagnosis, treatment, health education and proper patient support services under one roof, at a primary healthcare level.
TEXT ON SCREEN: Front desk of Machar Colony clinic
This is the front desk of the MSF hepatitis C clinic, where patients are registered. Afterwards, the patients who come for the first time for the screening test go upstairs for the screening test. And those patients who come for a follow-up visit with the doctors and nurses go towards the doctors and nurses for their consultations. MSF usually receives 30 to 35 patients every day.
TEXT ON SCREEN: The laboratory
Here in the laboratory we perform two kinds of tests. The first is the rapid detection test, which is a screening test for the hepatitis C. Second is the confirmatory test for confirmation of presence of the virus in the body, which is performed by the GeneXpert machine. Usually we perform 30 to 40 screening tests and 20 to 24 GeneXpert tests every day.
TEXT ON SCREEN: Counselling rooms
Here the patient receives three counselling sessions. The first at the time of diagnosis, second at the time of treatment initiation and third at the time they are cured of the hepatitis C virus. Usually we undertake 30 to 40 patient support sessions every day.
TEXT ON SCREEN: The pharmacy
Here at the pharmacy, patients receive medications every month. A patient normally has to take three to six months of medication to get rid of the virus.
TEXT ON SCREEN: The main waiting area
TEXT ON SCREEN: Consultation rooms
We have four consultation rooms, two for the doctors and two for the nurses. The female patients are usually seen by the female nurse and the female doctor.
Along with the follow-up consultations, the nurse also provides hep B vaccinations and family planning counselling if needed.
The clinic also has an ultrasound machine inside the clinic which is used to check the liver status of the patient. If hepatitis C is not treated on time, it can risk the liver to shrink, or lead to cirrhosis or liver cancer.
TEXT ON SCREEN: Health education
Another service offered by the MSF clinic is health education. A group of eight people provide awareness on prevention and treatment of hepatitis C treatment and diagnosis and prevention in the community and also inside the clinic.
MSF also undertakes household screenings, that if a person is diagnosed with hepatitis C they ask the people of the household to come for the screening to find out if someone is also infected with hepatitis C.
From diagnosis to treatment, from health education to patient support, MSF provides everything in one place.
This also improves people’s access to quality hepatitis C treatment, as it is available near their homes and in one place.

Walk & Talk Machar Colony Clinic | WEBCLIP ENG

Walk & Talk Machar Colony Clinic | WEBCLIP ENG