The Embassy of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta in the Republic of Chad has sent an overview of the country’s political and social situation and a report on the medical activities carried out during 2000.

The condition of the population of Chad, notwithstanding economic progress, is still precarious, complicated by the diffusion of prostitution and the consequent increase in the spread of AIDS. In March 2000 the country was struck by a meningitis epidemic, during which many of the sick were treated by the Order’s Embassy. The famine which spread after the flood provoked heavy demands for food and means of subsistence.

The medical services managed by the Embassy to the Central Hospital of N’Djamena made it possible for 475 orthopedic operations to be performed, 4,481 patients to be hospitalised and 9,650 people to be visited. Among the most important medical centres run by the Embassy are those in Amtoukoui, where 38,637 patients were treated in 2000, and in Biobè, where 133 patients were hospitalised for general and gynecologic treatment and 8,557 people were visited.

Activities included the treatment of convicts in N’Djamena jails. Convicts who could not afford medical costs were treated by permanent medical staff – some 5,698 in 2000.

In 2001 the Embassy aims to strengthen further the results achieved so far and to build other centres, like that in Bemouli, in the neighbourhoods of Sahr and Bessao.