News from the Rotary Doctor Bank

Issue no 2, 2000 -- English edition -- home

Page: -- Contents -- 1, (2), 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

• Malaria, the terror of tropical Africa -- editorial
• 8 children in the same family died before age 1
• He was like a wild animal

Malaria, the terror of tropical Africa

One million Africans die every year in malaria. Such numbers are almost incomprehensible. For the most part, it is the children who are stricken - 26,000 children die in Kenya alone from malaria.

The remarkable and hope-inspiring fact is that the disease can be prevented by something as simple as a net. Because of this, the Doctor Bank will in future do everything to protect more children, and at the same time see to it that they get pure drinking water - an enormous undertaking. Perhaps too great? No, if only helping a SINGLE child, one has achieved something. Through the Doctor Bank we can protect many thousands. That is surely something to rejoice in!

Not many of you who read this have had malaria. Some of our doctors have. I have also had severe malaria, but I know of none who describes the disease as well as the Polish world-affairs reporter and author Ryszard Kapuscinski. This year he published a book that everyone with connections to Africa should read: "Ebony" (translated to Swedish as "Ebenholts" and published by Bonniers). Here is a short (translated) excerpt:

"I wanted to sit up, but felt that I didn't have the strength, I lay there completely powerless. Cerebral malaria is the terror of Africa.

"The first sign of an impending malaria attack is a feeling of anxiety, suddenly engulfing. Soon comes the desensitizing, apathy, lethargy. You become irritated at everything, you hate light.

"Rapidly, without warning, comes the attack. It is suddenly cold. In a second, you freeze terribly, right through, in an utterly ghostly way.

"A person who has been through a severe attack of malaria is shattered. You lie in a pool of sweat, still in fever, and cannot move arms or legs …"

That's how it is. When travelling in Africa, you sometimes see people sitting or lying apathetically. It's not hard to see why. They have malaria.

Malaria is the totally dominating disease in the reports from our jeep-doctors. They cure many. We will now, with great enthusiasm and through the jeep-doctors and their assistants, also see to prevention, primarily protecting the children.

What a great and inspiring task our doctors do in addition to the direct medical treatment - surgeons, gynaecologists, ear specialists, eye specialists, orthopaedists, dentists and general practitioners.

- LARS BRAW -

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8 children in the same family died...

-- before age 1

"The first week, three children died. A four-month baby with malaria, extremely dehydrated, died on the way to the hospital. This was the woman's eighth child that died before age 1. She couldn't breast feed, so had given ordinary cow's milk instead."

Jeep-doctor Olav H Knutsen, from Sollefteå, Sweden, reports from the Homa Bay relay in Kenya, and continues:

"A seven-year old boy with malaria was severely dehydrated, and we began treatment with among other things intravenous fluid. He died after a few hours. A mother had walked 10 km with her eight-month old son. The boy died when she arrived at the clinic. When we drove her home, she sat in the back seat with child in lap and sang.

"Once we drove as fast as we could with a child who had cerebral malaria, from one of our outreach clinics to the hospital in Homa Bay. The boy died as we arrived. We drove the mother and dead boy back to the village."

All together, Dr Knutson treated 850 patients during six weeks. A great number were children. The overriding diagnosis was malaria. Over half the malaria cases had other diseases, e.g. dysentery, scabies and hypogastric infections.

Dr Knutson summarizes his time as jeep-doctor:

"I thought that development had come further. Poverty permeates the entire society. It's possible that people are so ill that they don't have the energy, but it can also be due to the lack of will. The work as jeep-doctor was enormously rewarding for me personally. In particular, I was able to see something of the world beyond the IT society. I realized what a gigantic task it is to create decent living conditions for people in a developing country. The Doctor Bank performs respect-inspiring work in Kenya."

Joshua Oliende is a trained nurse and an anchor in the jeep-doctor relay based in Homa Bay. He has worked there since the start in 1997.

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He was like a wild animal

This boy, admitted to the hospital in Maseno...

"This boy, admitted to the hospital in Maseno for a fractured femur, was initially like a wild and frightened animal," writes Dr Inger Heinz Kollberg, from Vännersborg, Sweden.

"He bit all who came near and ate like a dog, but thanks to the loyalty of the staff and restrained behaviour, it wasn't long before one could pat him on the cheek and stroke his hair. You can see from his expression the wonder at the two mugs just served: one with tea, the other with porridge. He had probably never been able to imagine something so wonderful."