Issue no 2, 1999 -- English edition -- home
Page: -- Contents -- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, (7), 8
- by Görel Day-Wilson
Diarrhoea diseases rank as number two on the World Health Organization's list of infectious diseases. Each year some 99 million people are stricken.
Polluted water stands for 80% of these diarrhoea cases. In small children, upwards of 20% of the cases are chronic, and so serious that a third of these children die.
These facts emerged in two interesting talks held by doctors of infectious diseases, Stig Cronberg from Malmö, and Per Hedman from Stockholm. The talks were held at this year's doctor convention in Holsbybrunn, 7-9 May, where over a hundred doctors gathered.
Since polluted water is the culprit, it is necessary, in the poor nations where the Doctor Bank works, to help families to obtain pure water cheaply. One such method is to purify the water using the sun's ultraviolet rays, which kills most bacteria.
"Without knowing the method's effectiveness, I would say that it would represent an enormous gain if one could cut the risk of infection by even one half,"
commented Dr Hedman, who sees the Doctor Bank bottle project as something very positive.
However, he points out that the most important step to prevent diarrhoea diseases is good hygiene. This must be constantly hammered home to the mothers.
Dr Stig Cronberg is also very positive to the Doctor Bank initiative of distributing plastic bottles to households in places where the jeep-doctors have their clinics and can educate about the importance of clean water.
"The bottles should be valuable in eliminating intestinal bacteria such as enterobacteria, in other words E. Coli., Salmonella and Shigella, but I would be careful for now about believing that they provide immediate protection against cholera. The temperature must in that case reach 60C in the bottle."
| Stig Cronberg |
Dr Cronberg was one of the Doctor Bank pioneers in the harsh Wajir region in northeastern Kenya. He has now decided to perform comprehensive tests of the bottles' water purification ability when he next year returns to Kenya to work on one of the jeep-doctor Masai relays.
Cholera, which was identified in 1885, exists naturally as Vibrio comma bacteria that can produce potent toxins in water. The disease has a more dramatic character than dysentery and has proven to be resistant to 3 or 4 common antibiotics. Cholera is endemic in some parts of Kenya, e.g. in Nyanza province south of Lake Victoria, where the Doctor Bank runs a jeep-doctor relay out of Homa Bay. There is a Cholera vaccine, which can even be given orally much like the oral polio vaccine, but although acceptance is high when drops can be placed on a child's tongue instead of given as injections, the cost is high - SEK 250 (USD 30), which is of course too expensive for the most exposed groups in developing countries.
Another talk by Dr Hedman took up the worrying increase of malaria worldwide - a doubling in the last 20 years. One explanation could be the change in climate.
In Rwanda, it has been shown that an increase in average temperature of only 1.9C over 15 years caused a tripling of the frequency of malaria. In warmer conditions, the dangerous parasite develops much faster in the infecting mosquito.
However, during the same period of time, China was able to dramatically reduce the incidence of malaria from 30 million cases in 1960 to only 60,000 in 1992. Why?
The most important reason, according to Dr Hedman, is a well-functioning primary health care system. Protection is also given by 20 million mosquito nets for beds, even if they are not always impregnated.
The video "Women of the Doctor Bank" by Bertil Falk is available in a new version, now also in English. See it! This film shows how some of our women doctors work among the most impoverished, sometimes under primitive conditions. The doctors tell us about how working for the Doctor Bank gives them a different view on life - and of how infinitely grateful people are when they can see a doctor.
Through the Rotary Foundation and Jorivision, the Doctor Bank has received a new video film about a day with jeep-doctor Jarl Magnusson among the Masai. Here, during 23 minutes, we meet people in this remote region of Africa, while getting an idea of how much the jeep-doctor means.
A new film by Bertil Falk, this describes the great work performed by dentists among children in a remote part of Africa. It also takes up Water for Life, the Doctor Bank project to prevent disease, and how ear and eye specialists get the deaf to hear and the blind to see.
The films each cost SEK 145 (USD 17) to rent, SEK 200 (USD 23) to buy. They can be ordered from the Rotary Doctor Bank, telephone +46 (40) 978070, telefax +46 (40) 971170, or e-mail. See last page for address and further contact information.