Diseases of the Community

After hosting several clinics at Kageno Rusinga, I am beginning to understand the various complaints. Most people come in complaining of "Wia Bare" or Headache and " very much diarrhea-ring". I am seeing things for the first time as well. After seeing the 200+ kids of the Kageno Nursery school, we are now hosting adult clinics (thank god because that is what I am training in :). I also recently understand we just missed a mumps outbreak on the island. I saw a man come in with a huge abcess looking thing on his neck and I thought it was mumps because of what I was told of the outbreak. But then I remembered I am resident physician and I used deduction skills and noted it was a large abcess on his neck. It is funny how much medical common sense is lost here because everything is so different. I feel like everyone is "feeling Malarial" even if they don't have malaria. Some of the diseases we have seen thus far are:
1. Malaria (a lot)
2. Anemia (kids are eating soil, a sign of anemia, however, we are unable to run a basic blood test, a CBC to check for anemia)
3. Typhoid Fever
4. Entamoeba Histolytica (parasitic diarrhea disease)
5. AIDS and AIDS related illnesses= TB, PCP, Kaposi's Sarcoma, cryptosporidium, CAP
6. Pneumonia!! Yay, i felt comfortable diagnosing this one because we see it in the USA
7. Pyelonephritis (kidney infection)
8. Cysts of various parasites in stool
9. STDs:
10. Sickle Cell disease
11. Neck abcess
12. TB
13. Otitis Media (ear infection
14. Strep throat
15. Tinea Capitis (Ring Worm of the head: on just about every school child in the region)
16. MALNUTRITION and Associated illnesses.
Each child comes in with various other complaints, mostly skin complaints, but we are unable to do much for these. We are not trained in skin diseases, not to mention, malnutrition is something I am unfamiliar with. I have read and researched much about it and the skin problems that are associated with malnutrition (mostly vit B deficiency and protein deficiency) are what we are seeing. The kids have many sores that won't heal on their limbs.
It is amazing what these kids can go through on a daily basis. If i scratched my knee when I was their age, I would have a band-aid placed on my limb and a sucker in my mouth. These kids come in with a 104 degree fever, malaria, sores all over their limbs, they are thirsty and dehydrated, hungry and then told to go back to school.
I believe we will be leaving to host a 2 day clinic on Mfangano, the Jurassic Park Island, in a day. The chief of the island has announced it, and apparently several people are already requesting our services. I am hoping we are able to provide something, even if it is just comfort. The resources there are lacking: lab, meds, lab tech help, etc, however, just seeing people and comforting them is often somewhat of a soother. I do hope eventually we will be able to start up a clinic like Rusinga's on Mfangano. The structure is there, now we need the equipment. I can only hope to return in 1yrs time to see a clinic running effectively on Mfangano. I must now go, it is tea time at Midday, something that they should provide at hospitals in America!