Three days was enough for me to get the rhythm going -- that was one 24-hour duty, a from duty status and a day as the OPD officer. It was enough to get my eating right, enough for me to know the general lay of the hospital, and enough for me to know that in the next seven days I would see more cases of acute gastroenteritis, intestinal parasitism and malaria.
It's almost sad to admit that the major diseases I see everyday can be easily remedied by good hygiene and proper sanitation. This may seem a straightforward solution for disease prevention for other locals but I understand a lot of traditional beliefs may hinder the minorities into taking positive action for better health.
A case in point: Most minorities in the ward do not think taking a bath is necessary. On the contrary they avoid taking baths because it goes against their belief. Any illness is brought upon by actions that have angered gods or from the ill will of spirits. A plea for cleanliness and hygiene with a gift of a bar of soap may not always get the desired result. A family given soap to bathe with was found the next day still oily and grimy. Not even their faces had lightened with washing. As it turned out, instead of using the soap for bathing, the family had used the soap to wash clothing.
When you are up against decades of tradition it sometimes feels like you are fighting a losing battle. It makes you feel that for every step forward you take, you take not just two steps back, but three. And then a day comes when you do the morning rounds and find out one boy was actually given a bath. It erases all the frustrations and pushes you to take one more step forward, only to find that you're still two steps behind.
Coming to the hospital I didn't think I was going see so many malaria patients. By the end of ten days I would admit 4 patients with blood teeming with Plasmodium falciparum. There were already three others in the ward receiving treatment for it. These are just the pediatrics cases. Internal Medicine had it's own share of malaria cases. If in urban Manila, Dengue was the disease to rule out for every febrile, flu-ey patient, in rural Mindoro Malaria was what I had to watch out for. I had no idea they saw so many cases. Although most patients came from far away towns I still felt unsafe without prophylaxis.
On a lighter more hopeful note, the workload in the hospital isn't all that heavy for the most part. I enjoyed walking trips to the center of the town and a short tricycle ride to the beach. I hadn't taken a camera with me since I wanted to focus more on the work part of the trip. But standing on the powdery white sand beach at Tayamaan watching two kids tumble into the water as the sun set I could not resist the urge to capture the moment with my phone camera.
Sometimes, life's a beach. All you have to do is breathe deeply.
It's almost sad to admit that the major diseases I see everyday can be easily remedied by good hygiene and proper sanitation. This may seem a straightforward solution for disease prevention for other locals but I understand a lot of traditional beliefs may hinder the minorities into taking positive action for better health.
A case in point: Most minorities in the ward do not think taking a bath is necessary. On the contrary they avoid taking baths because it goes against their belief. Any illness is brought upon by actions that have angered gods or from the ill will of spirits. A plea for cleanliness and hygiene with a gift of a bar of soap may not always get the desired result. A family given soap to bathe with was found the next day still oily and grimy. Not even their faces had lightened with washing. As it turned out, instead of using the soap for bathing, the family had used the soap to wash clothing.
When you are up against decades of tradition it sometimes feels like you are fighting a losing battle. It makes you feel that for every step forward you take, you take not just two steps back, but three. And then a day comes when you do the morning rounds and find out one boy was actually given a bath. It erases all the frustrations and pushes you to take one more step forward, only to find that you're still two steps behind.
Coming to the hospital I didn't think I was going see so many malaria patients. By the end of ten days I would admit 4 patients with blood teeming with Plasmodium falciparum. There were already three others in the ward receiving treatment for it. These are just the pediatrics cases. Internal Medicine had it's own share of malaria cases. If in urban Manila, Dengue was the disease to rule out for every febrile, flu-ey patient, in rural Mindoro Malaria was what I had to watch out for. I had no idea they saw so many cases. Although most patients came from far away towns I still felt unsafe without prophylaxis.
On a lighter more hopeful note, the workload in the hospital isn't all that heavy for the most part. I enjoyed walking trips to the center of the town and a short tricycle ride to the beach. I hadn't taken a camera with me since I wanted to focus more on the work part of the trip. But standing on the powdery white sand beach at Tayamaan watching two kids tumble into the water as the sun set I could not resist the urge to capture the moment with my phone camera.
Sometimes, life's a beach. All you have to do is breathe deeply.
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