The good news is that the health of the little children of
the world is improving according to UNICEF, that means that instead of 12
million deaths in 1990, there were only 7.6 million last year. The numbers are
overwhelming, and we shouldn't lose
sight of the fact that each one is an individual tragedy.
Our hospital at Guinebor has always had a special place for
children, that is at the front of the queue: the same place that Jesus put them
. Like him we got some initial protests from the adults who didn't understand, but is
now accepted that the under fives can'
push in' at the front as they are often our sickest and most vulnerable
patients.
I was initially going to start this blog share with the exciting news that we have recently operated on 2 very young babies and they have
both survived. . One aged about a
week had a meningocoele , a fragile pouch of spinal cord lining over her lower
back; and the other a pyloric stenosis aged 5 weeks , a blockage to the stomach
that causes persistent vomiting. Both will now have a normal life expectancy,
for Chad. I hadn't done either operation before so as a surgeon I am encouraged
because the reality is that there are
now 2 young children who will have the chance to grow up loved by their parents.
We can all rejoice and give thanks to God.
However as a project manager I need to see things a bit differently and keep things in perspective. I
need to remember that the vast majority of children die of preventable disease
such as malaria, diarrhoea,
malnutrition, pneumonia measles and tetanus. World wide 21 000 die each day and
each week some of them are at our hospital . Unfortunately the good news of the title to this blog doesn't apply if you are born in Chad. iIt now reports the highest childhood death rates
in the world 209/1000 (over 20%)
and actually is one of 10 countries that
are getting worse.
What can we do? Operating
on newborns feels good but isn't the answer. According to UNICEF/WHO the children of the rest of the world are
doing better because of better access to health care and well run immunisation
programs so we need to keep the children
at the front of the queue and we need to get integrated into the fledgling national
immunisation program. Last year just
before the re-launch there were no vaccines in the country, I know that has changed and we need to play our part. I
will take some time off from clinical medicine each week to visit offices,
write letters and establish projects so that we can get involved.
Administration saves lives.
We will also step up our identification and treatment of
malnourished children suffering due to the famine following on from poor
rainfall in the Sahel last year, BMS are again collecting special funds for that. And finally
what about a really crazy idea passed on
to me by a retired GP friend whilst I
was in the UK ; using good malaria
prophylaxis as well as a mosquito net
prevents deaths in seasonal malarial ( BMJ news section august ) Giving my patients
the same protection my children have always had, what a strange idea!
Whatever
next?
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