Oregon Public Broadcasting

A Portland physician left Tuesday for Uganda, along with nurses from Seattle and Colorado Springs.  They're part of a Medical Teams International effort to help refugees fleeing violence in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.

Dr. Steve Boyer is an emergency room physician with St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland.  He says he expects to find a range of illnesses at the refugee center.

Steve Boyer: "Well the teams that have been going there since January have been dealing with a lot of malaria and a lot of bloody diarrhea or dysenteries or pneumonias  mostly but there might be more exotic infectious diseases."

Boyer says that 49,000 to 50,000 refugees have streamed across the border since the conflict in the Congo worsened in August. He expects to oversee a refugee center that will serve some 25,000 - 30,000 people.