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His eyes had a hollow look and his tattered shirt barely covered
his bony little body. I attempted to smile at him in a motherly way,
but the response was a shallow look and a distance-glazed stare. He
did allow me to approach and give him a brief meeting in my faltering
language. I reached out and felt his head. It was blistering
hot. My concern was to get this child some safe, clean water and
some medical help.
I looked around for a source of water, only to realize that the sole
source of water was an open well that had a myriad of "floaties" in it.
I could not give the boy a drink from this unsafe, filthy water.
Just then, Dr. Yaren approached and I expressed my concern about the
boy. He looked at the boy, and shrugged his shoulders as if to say
"so what?" and then added, "he probably has chronic malaria. Many of
the children do here, you know." No, frankly I did not know.
There are numerous diseases that inflict their havoc on humanity.
Many are just pests; uncomfortable, bothersome, and just slow a person
down, such as the common cold. Others are lethal. Some will
kill slowly, ever so slowly, such as AIDS/HIV. Some kill quickly,
but leave, in their wake, innumerable mourners.
Among the serious diseases facing the world, malaria poses a serious
health risk to over 50% of the countries in the world. The World
Health Organization calculates that between 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 people
die yearly of malaria1.
Many suspected cases go undiagnosed and untreated. The number is
huge and varies due to lack of consistent reporting in some areas of the
world. Malaria is carried around the world in planes, in cargo
containing mosquitoes, and by people who carry malaria within their bodies
to locations around the globe. Malaria causes concern in nearly
every country in the world.
In the United States, over 20,000 people die each year of the flu.
Accidental deaths by motor vehicles account for over 40,000 deaths yearly.
Within the diseases caused by social habits, there are over 400,000
tobacco-related deaths yearly in the U.S. and thousands2,
millions more throughout the world.
We have a new disease, SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome).
SARS has been on the news and has caught the attention of the world, and
particularly, the media. We have been deluged with information, to
the point where this information has been dubbed the "media virus."3
Knowledge of this vile disease of SARS is in its infancy; however, the
publicity of SARS has made the entire world a little more nervous.
With all of the information, and after much consideration, MEDRIX is
moving ahead and taking a team to Vietnam. The following excerpt is
from a letter that our Medical Director, Dr. Robert Wills, wrote to the
MEDRIX team members:
"As of today, the MEDRIX traveling team is planning on leaving for
Vietnam on the morning of May 28, 2003 (3:00 am) with returns scheduled
for the weekends of June 14 and 22. Although it is impossible to
completely remove the risk of SARS, there is good evidence that all SE
Asian countries with significant outbreaks have made important steps to
contain the disease and minimize transmission.
Vietnam has been designated as the: 'world's first country to
successfully contain its outbreak. No new cases have been reported since
April 8 - meeting the window of 20 days, or twice the disease's
incubation period, set by the WHO as the standard for declaring that the
outbreak is no longer spreading.' (April 2, 2003, Associated Press)
Taiwan has increased its monitoring of the disease and has
increased surveillance of travelers leaving for other countries.
This should insure added safety during the Taiwan to HCMC leg of the
trip.
There is still much to be known about this disease, but it danger
has to be placed in the context of multiple risks, though small, that we
face when we decide to work in emerging nations. Each of us has to
make the risk / benefit decision on our own. Of course, if there
is a dramatic change in the SARS situation in the next few weeks, that
new information will be taken into consideration in regards to our
travel plans."
1 Bulletin of
the World Heatlth Organization, 2002, 80(8)
2 The Wall Street Journal, April 28, 2003, A12
3 The Wall Street Journal, April 28,
2003, A12
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