Delirious @ Cutting Edge, Furious? Curious?

It was 2004  when we first made contact with Bert Oubre about working in Chad. The hospital was still on the drawing board, and the land an undeveloped area of scrub and dry mudflat on the edge of the city,  so we declined the offer of a job, preferring to continue in the NHS. Five years later, 2009, ,we could only remember that it was in Ndjamena , Chad and that it was called Cutting Edge. That  name had stuck as we  had four albums of Cutting Edge music, the name  first used by the band that became Delirious whilst writing such songs as 'Did you feel the mountains tremble' and 'I can sing of your love forever' (c. Martin Smith Curious? Music 1994). A quick google search for 'Cutting Edge Chad' and contact was made, and now we are here 'over the mountains and the seas'  'dancers who dance  on  injustice' of health inequality and hopefully sing of Gods love to  the people of Chad.  

So much for Christians like me singing and dancing there are some things in life that should make us angry (Furious?) and motivate us to do something, and one of those is seeing children die. It is malaria season and there is the usual annual explosion of cases. Malaria is a disease of poverty, it and was eliminated as a public health problem in the Southern States of the US  and southern Europe during the 20th Century, by spending money on water management and mosquito elimination. Meanwhile in the 21st century each year when the rains come Chad experiences a further  epidemic of Malaria. It has even made the BBC news with MSF reporting on the number of cases in Eastern Chad. Here is our own graph, although lacking some data the trend is clear and follows the arrival of the heavy rains which leave pools of water for mosquito breeding.

 

 

We, the privileged, live in our mosquito screened houses, sleep under an insecticide  impregnated mosquito net, take prophylactic anti malarials and have rapid access to diagnosis and treatment. Since we have been in Chad none of our family has caught malaria. We are fortunate, but most of the population are not so blessed. Last month was I hope  the peak and we treated 685 cases of which 69 (10%) were admitted to hospital and 6 (1%) died. There were according to official figures 8743 cases of Malaria in Ndjamena North treated in official centres in the last 3 months.

Which brings us to the title of the blog, delerious@cutting edge. We receive children each day who have been running a fever and been off colour for a day or two and who have suddenly got much worse, being at best delirious or worse having fitted and become  profoundly unconscious. Many astonish us and recover and we give thanks for that: others don't such as the one year old girl I was called to on Wednesday morning. She came in 24 hours earlier and despite antimalarials, antibiotics, sugar and saline drips, and anticonvulsants she never regained consciousness and slowly ebbed away. Heartbreaking for her mother to lose her only child. Each tragic death could be  prevented by the simple precautions above  that we take for granted.

 

The graph is mainly the work of Moussa, one of our nurses, who each week checks the registers and files an infectious disease  report for the District Medical Officer. Probably due to this effort we have received 3000 mosquito nets from the Health Ministry and UNICEF. So now every pregnant woman, every case of malaria and every hospital inpatient is given a new net to take home and hopefully avoid the next case of malaria. Statistics are not always boring, they can help save lives. I must tell Ruth that next time I am helping her with her Maths homework.