Sick again--New Public Health Center--Public Health Team recruits

After being sick for nearly a week with Shigella, a bacterial infection that can be contracted by drinking contaminated water or passed through feces (someone not washing their hands and then preparing food), I’m happy to say that I’m back at work and going full force ahead. Bloody diarrhea, incessant vomiting, no appetite, continual migraines, high fever, muscle aches and joint and eye pain are the lovely symptoms of Shigella. To be dramatic, it was what I imagined dying to feel like. To be serious, I was very lucky to have people taking care of me, providing me with Tylenol to control the fevers, metronidazole to fight the infection, clean water to replenish my lost liquids and a clean bed to rest in. Shigella is a very serious disease that can lead to several operations (including removal of the colon) and even death for many people who are not as fortunate as I am to have access to those needs. My public health team was there for me every step of the way, carrying me to the bathroom, flushing my face with water, changing my sheets and my shirts and making sure I was drinking enough water and taking my medicine when I needed to. They were amazing to say the least. Then all of a sudden, the fever broke, the pains went away, the fluids retained and by the next morning, I was walking on my own. Within three days, I went from unable to lift my own leg, to running up and down the stairs. The human body is one powerful machine. Shigella, along with amebas (a parasite that Shigella is often mistaken for) are the newest sicknesses to be included in the Public Health Team’s training. They will now be covered in the Hygiene and Sanitation chapter.

Doctor Cynthia, the medical director for Pwoje Espwa just approved my design for a new Public Health Center fully equipped with 17 rooms and two full baths including a teaching/conference room, laboratory, x-ray room, pharmacy, inpatient ward, treatment/trauma room, exam rooms, dental suite, dentist, doctor, nurse and secretary offices. This facility, which has now become my primary fundraising focus, will run in the area of $250,000 to complete. It will serve upwards of 40,000 people in all of the nearby local villages. Public health teams will continue to be trained and sent out to the villages to provide testing, treatment and education on a list of health needs. The focus of this center will be on prevention and public health, a topic not covered fully by any other health care facility in the southern region of Haiti. There are thousands of clinics providing primary and secondary care but for some reason, whether it is lack of resources, lack of interest or lack of motivation, none of these clinics are putting their efforts into prevention. It is not impossible to both treat and prevent, but in order to be successful at disease prevention, a huge effort must be made and a large allocation of resources provided to head start the process. Prevention is by far the most cost-effective and sure way of eliminating the diseases endemic to this country and the unnecessary deaths that are the result.

I have just finished recruiting for the next generation of the public health team. They are ten boys ranging from 12-20 years old. They began their 3-month training on Monday and have their first assignment this morning. The ten of them, along with the current 5 public health workers, will begin to rid 15 new houses of bed bugs. They will be spraying with permethrine, caulking cracks, sealing door frames, inspecting beds and painting the walls with oil based paint. Their assignment is to work together, teach each other and finish these homes as soon as possible so that we can begin moving children and families into them.