New Personal Stories
(A Good Health News Exclusive)
Appreciate the daily health challenges that patients in poor countries face. Most of these stories are based on the experience of our MyPH Consultants. For the purpose of the GHN newsletter, each story is structured as a series of short chapters. Only one chapter is published in a GHN issue and readers are encouraged to look for the next chapter in the next issue of GHN. All of the chapters for each of the Short Stories will be posted sequentially on the MyPH websites after they appear in GHN. Readers may update themselves on the story at any time.
Introduction
Dr. Charles Muroa is a young Western educated doctor who started his life as one of three Village Nurses who have to provide all of the medical care for more than three hundred thousand people of the Komo tribe, in the rural villages of Southern Kenya (a population the size of the city of New Orleans Louisiana in the USA). In this heart-rending story, GHN readers follow young Charles as he returns to his village after high school to work with the missionary nurses that are the main source of health care for his people. Almost immediately, Charles is recruited to help two Village Nurses fight a Meningitis epidemic in one of the outlying villages. Charles knows that meningitis is a contagious disease that produces infection of the brain and a high death rate, especially among children. He fears that this outbreak of meningitis could devastate his people as this was the time of the year when large crowds were gathering in in the towns and villages throughout the region to celebrate the annual “Festival of Circumcision”.
Wake up Charles, Wake up! We’ve got a serious emergency in East Komo. I turned over in bed. I could see the look of concern on my father’s face even through my weary eyes.
What is it, father? I muttered. I was 18 years old and more concerned with sleeping late than with what was going on in the countryside. I had recently finished high school in the big city of Nairobi, Kenya and was waiting for my results of my exams before proceeding with applications for college. I wanted to be the first person from my village to go to college and I had just returned to my village in the South to help my father manage the village church while I waited for the results of my exams. Read more…