Health alert for Bogota displaced

Colombian authorities Thursday declared a health alert for more than thousand
displaced families residing in Bogota’s Parque Tercer Milenio.

The District Emergency Committee examined the health condition of the displaced who have been living in a Bogota park for more than four months now. 

The examination revealed that 131 people show symptoms of the AH1N1 virus, three are infected with HIV and others have tuberculosis and cancer.

“The District Committee declared a health alert in the Parque Tercer Milenio. This declaration allows us to intervene, to take all prevention measures in order to reduce the [health] risks,” Bogota mayor Samuel Moreno Rojas said in a statement.

The authorities will start Thursday afternoon with respective measures like evacuation of the ill and sick from the park and their transfer to hospitals for monitoring.

Around 50 displaced families arrive daily in Bogota, mainly from the departments of Tolima, Quindío, Huila, Valle and Cauca. The displaced gather in the Parque Tercer Milenio to protest against forced displacements and insufficient aid of the government.

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