Community Health Visits:

The following is a list of some of the villages the community health team visited over the past couple weeks:

1/15: Massika , 1/16: Oulianga , 1/21: Issinga and Nambakele , 1/22: Paris- Bifoun , 1/23: Noumbakele , 1/28: Oyenano , 1/29: Fougamou .

I have enjoyed this aspect of my experience here in Gabon. It is during these days that I gain experience in clinical pediatrics. On a typical day do approximately 10-15 pediatric consultations and will assist with the vaccination of approximately 40-60 children. For the consultations, I have two pediatricians at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital and a nurse practitioner with whom I can consult for complicated cases. A majority of the cases have been respiratory infections, gastro-intestinal infections, malaria, skin rashes and abscesses. As I mentioned previously, we have a limited supply of medication with which to treat but most of the antibiotics we do have access to have a broad spectrum of therapy.

It is saddening and frustrating at times to witness the poor healthcare infrastructure here. These people basically have limited access to medical care. The only time they can be seen by trained professionals is when the community health team visits. The remainder of the month the only option would be to go to the hospital (which transportation itself makes it cost-prohibitive) or visit one of the traditional medicine men located in the village. The Schweitzer Hospital serves as a model for the country in serving remote villages. There is only so much they can do though. Our team visits approximately 15 of the 31 health posts located throughout the region. In theory the health posts are to be manned by nursing assistants but my experience is that these health professionals either leave their posts or do not work.

Marchella, the girlfriend of the German physician working at the hospital, joined the health team on one of our visits a couple weeks ago. She was working for the hospital taking photos to be used on their new website (still under construction) and she was nice enough to share some of her photos with me.