Sunday, July 5, 2009

Medical Team






We recently held the 4 annual medical mission to Maai Mahiu. The team is lead by Dr. Steve Segebrecht. This year CTC hosted 23 medical professionals (doctors, nurses and students) at the government clinic. The team was made up of specialists that included Ear Nose and Throat, Internal Medicine, Optometrist, Dentist, Pediatrics, OBGYN and a full working pharmacy. The clinic is held for 4 days. It's all free to the community and as you can imagine free medical treatment by western doctors is VERY popular. We have learned our lesson from the past. We cannot leave it open to whomever shows up. So the week before there are two days of registration. Each patient is given a color card for a specific day and medical problem. Red being Monday, Green Tues. etc... The total allowed to be seen for each clinic is decided on by the doctors before they arrive. That way we can manage both the flood of people and make sure the doctors are not overloaded. This year saw all clinics full to capacity. We even were able to register all patients in one day...no need for a second. What was interesting this year is the system is so efficient now that the doctors were actually finished early each day. In the past the doctors worked until the end of the day and still did not see all patients. Now we can add patients for the coming years.

We also invited the VCT (volunteer, counseling and testing) HIV group from Kijabe hospital. This is the same program that CTC will be running out of our office as we have now signed an agreement with the Hospital. Maai Mahiu has some of the highest HIV rates in all Kenya with over 20% but probably closer to 30%. Truck towns breed problems. The govn't places the HIV rate of all Kenya at 6%. We saw a record number this year, 350. There were some tough times with this area this year. We saw two different mothers come in with their 1 year old babies wanting to be tested. And both mother and child were positive. It breaks my heart to see young ones who will have such a hard life ahead. Also, there was a woman who came to be tested who had not left her house in two weeks because her husband had beat her so badly. She wanted the two to be tested as she suspected they had HIV, but when he found out he flipped out on her. Her face was still swollen and eyes black and blue. It was additionally sad because her test came back positive. Now she had to go home to her husband and tell him. Generally, women do not cheat on their husbands in Kenya. The men are the ones who go out and sleep with other women, come home and then give HIV to the wife. These are not the bright side of the week but knowing we did test so many gives these people the chance to get into the program and receive both counseling and ARV drugs for free. So all in all it's a win even with positive results.

Often education is the biggest need within Maai Mahiu. For the second year we had an education area where grad students worked with individuals on family planning, pre natal care and nutrition. So many of the basics in the West that we take for granted simply are not known or followed in Maai Mahiu. Washing hands, baby care, balanced diet, cooking methods etc. The grad students did a fabulous job on educating and also gaining a lot of current information that we can use for the future to design our community health programs

We also saw one baby born during the clinics. It's always amazing how when a baby is born during the week all other clinics seem to stop. No matter how seasoned the medical staff are they always see a new addition to this crazy world as a wonderful reason to stop and watch. The government officials also came to see the clinic in work and were very impressed. It's good to have the big boys on our side. Total the doctors saw 900 patients and dolled out a huge amount of prescription drugs. The pharmacy ran smoother than ever. Not overwhelmed like past years. This year they started a new policy of trying to supply de-worming medicines to entire families. This is a major medical problem for the community. One Masaai man came to get the drugs for his entire family. 24 in total. His 3 wives, himself and 20 children. Yes 20 children. I guess we in the U.S. can never complain about our big families. Can you imagine 20 children?

I wanted to take this moment to thank all the medical professionals for their hard work. I was so impressed by how tirelessly they worked. Humbled really!!!! So thank you again and look forward to all the future medical programs for CTC and Maai Mahiu in the years to come.

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