Issue no 3, 1999 -- English edition -- home
Page: -- Contents -- 1, 2, 3, 4, (5), 6, 7, 8
"Poisonous snakes such as the Black Mamba are common, but worse than all snakes are the mosquitoes that spread the malign cerebral malaria," says Dr Christina Tronde, from Östersund, Sweden, to the regional newspaper in a large interview. She had just returned from working for the Doctor Bank at the Gamboula Hospital in RCA, along with the husband and wife doctor team Sven Arne and Lena Silverdahl.
"Many children die needlessly from disease and malnutrition, and the lack of medicine is as devastating as the poverty. But despite all this, all was not hopeless. We sometimes received apparently dying people who recovered after medication and nursing."
"It was tragic to see children with polio, because the disease can be prevented with vaccines. Not all children in the rural areas of Kenya have received the necessary vaccinations."
The observation is made by Finnish doctor Tanja Vuorela, working as jeep-doctor for the first time. She goes on to say:
"The number of patients was so great that we had to set a limit of 50 per day. Even if one were to work night and day, one could not give help to all."
Rotary's big campaign Polio Plus, intended to totally eradicate polio, will end in 2005. By then all children shall be vaccinated.
Across two pages in the regional newspaper and with large colour photos, Dr Inger Kollberg, from Vänersborg, Sweden, tells of her thirteenth assignment with the Doctor Bank in Kenya.
"During a six week period, the doctor is on duty around the clock," she says. "My specialty is urology, but here I have had to practice all kinds of medicine. Sometimes one can have three Caesareans in a day."
Asked why she continues to work as a doctor after her retirement in 1993, she replies:
"I have an extensive education, long experience, and I have skills that I can use as long as I am in good health myself."
This recurring section has been moved to a common root page.