Blog
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Records Break in March
April 25, 2010
March was a busy month for the Duk Lost Boys Clinic, setting all kinds of records in its three-year history. These records include the highest number of patients in a month (2,457), which meant conducting a record number of laboratory tests (1,049), a record number of pre-natal check-ups (155), and the midwives tied the record for deliveries in a month with 10, set the month before.
In addition to all this happening at the Clinic, it was a busy month for outreach activities. The Clinic’s vaccination team reached 700 children, gave tetanus toxoid vaccine to 348 mothers, and gave de-worming to 4,942 school children. The month started off with a refresher training for 25 traditional birth attendants, supplying them with safe delivery kits, mud boots, flashlights, and rain coats. These are key items that will help ensure they can conduct safe deliveries in some of the most challenging conditions one can imagine.
The high number of patients at the Clinic was due to many factors, including an increase in services. For example, the Clinic recently received a donation of an ultrasound machine, which is used for the detection of high-risk pregnancies. In just one week at the Clinic, it was used to diagnose a twin pregnancy, malpresentation, and polyhydramnious (an excess of amniotic fluids) which can lead to premature labor. This is added to the Clinic’s other prenatal services, such as laboratory screenings, counseling and testing for HIV, immunizations, and malaria net distributions.
The weather in Duk was unforgiving as well, a mix between 100+ degree Fahrenheit days and blusterings winds that brought occassional downpours. And yet the Clinic staff remains strong.
Things don’t seem to be slowing down either. During the first week of April, the Clinic set a record for total visits in one day with 205, many people coming from 50 kilometers or more away. This time of year is at the opposite end as the harvest season, meaning a spike in malnutrition, which can perpetuate other common diseases such as pneumonia, malaria, and diarrhea. This month, the area in which the Clinic serves was classified as very food insecure by the World Food Program, with up to a quarter of the population there severely food insecure.
This comes at a time when South Sudan will hold its first elections in more than two decades. With life beginning anew for the Sudanese here, one thing that they won’t have to worry about, thanks to the generous support of people a world away, is where they can find healthcare.
