August camps

August had been scheduled for our second annual cataract and hernia camp.
Unfortunately an incident a few miles from the Clinic made these arrangements impossible, the local police station attacked and reprisal army activity closing down movement on the river with subsequent attacks on a coastal village where militant insurgents were presumed to be based.
The tension arose from government attempts to close down illegal oil refining that has grown into a sizeable cottage industry in the region, many small operations growing from the illegal oil bunkering that is endemic in the area.

Throughout the creeks barges can be seen being built that are used to carry crude oil for local refining. On the river bank a barge is being sealed with wet tar to make watertight.
With dwindling fish stocks, and the constant demand for fuel, small scale oil refining is growing throughout the region. Though burns, explosions, pollution and the law may deter some, the rewards are lucrative and the trade understandable in a region where poverty and unemployment are such dominant forces.

The Clinic remains open daily, and continued to see patients throughout this period.
Trustees met with members of the team instead of the joint camps to review procedures and set out details for a palliative care program.

Home visiting is crucial to our work to seek out patients who may be reluctant or unable to seek medical attention.

'Not too far from the clinic,you would see an elderly woman with longstanding tuberculosis trying to get some warmth from the fireplace,which is as a result of the heavy rains

She recently started coughing out bloody sputum,which stirred her grand-daughter who is presently taking her school exams to call our attention.

It was obvious that she had lost a lot of weight and was not being properly taken care of,none of her children have been around, as most people are in the creeks these days frying crude oil

we however examined her,and noticed her chest was not clear,we therefore placed her on antibiotics,hoping to see some slight inprovement in the next camp,you can see her receiving a chest exam in the pics

Ideally she would have needed to do a sputum exam to detect acid fast bacilli in her sputum,probably do a chest x-ray and some other tests but these facilities are hardly available so most sufferers of this disease live with these disease and eventually die since there are no facilities and required personnel to tackle these problems which is worsened by poverty. Treatment for TB requires long term medication, and treatment in these areas is difficult , many stopping medications as soon as they feel better. TB is a disease of poverty and overcrowding, and increasingly it is seen in younger patients concurrently infected with HIV'
DrOghumu- Med Superintendent

We are excited that Facing Africa, a medical charity specialising in the treatment of cancrum oris patients has agreed to accept a patient we have been following for the past year. In early October we plan to escort her to their hospital based in Sokoto, northern Nigeria for a three week stay, where she will undergo plastic surgery.