Malaria and Mango Trees

“How can you be sophisticated enough to do cataract surgery but not know that you have to get rid of the flies in the operating room and the rat poop outside that’s getting tracked into the operating room?” wonders Dr. Bill Fridinger, the retired emergency room physician who has accompanied our medical team to Kaberamaido.

The level of medical care practiced here is in many ways astounding to us all. With no electricity or monitoring machines, the local doctor manages to successfully carry out complex surgeries. The doctor and medical officers here each have an incredible repertoire of abilities to treat conditions that would be referred to specialists in the United States. There are some other surprises.

Malaria

“The biggest surprise to me is how much malaria is here and the people’s reaction to it,” Bill tells me. “Among the kids at least, I think 80 percent or more have evidence of a recent malarial attack within the last few months.

“It’s such a fact of life that they just kind of accept it. Even when a kid dies, it doesn’t seem to cause an uproar, anything like that. A kid died last week at the orphanage. They’re just numb to it, I guess you could say. By all US standards, they’re having an incredibly bad epidemic at the moment, and nobody’s upset about it.”

Mango trees

The medical team sees very few injuries. Why? The mangos aren’t ripe.

The leading cause of injuries? Kids falling from mango trees. Kids here are warned not to climb the mango trees, but I can understand the temptation. Hungry kids, free juicy mangos for the taking, just a quick climb away. And kids will be kids, here as anywhere else.