December 13, 2007
Seasons Greetings from Bwindi Community Health Centre
It is hard to believe it is Christmas when the days are twelve hours long and there is no nip in the air. This Christmas newsletter is from Dr Scott Kellermann the Founder of BCHC, and Dr Paul Williams, who is currently the doctor in charge. We are extremely grateful for the support that we get to enable us to work in Bwindi. Hopefully you will be impressed by what the team who work here have achieved in 2007.
A lot has been done to improve the health of the people of this area, but there is still much to do. This morning we did a ward round before starting the HIV clinic. Our hospital is overflowing with children and pregnant women. Amon is 6 years old and his skin is peeling off because of severe malnutrition. His family are too poor to feed him a balanced diet, and he has been living off a local banana plant called matoke. His belly is swollen and he has been unable to swallow food or drink. His immunity is so low that he developed pneumonia and last week he was close to death. Today, after eight days of treatment, he was outside for the first time playing with a toy reindeer and laughing. We work here because we are able to make a difference to the life of Amon and thousands of others like him. He will be home to join his family for Christmas. Please take a look at the Health Centre website at www.BCHC.ug. It is full of the latest news from the hospital, including stories from our activities, information about HIV/AIDS, new photographs and a focus on the staff who work here.
News in brief
The Child Health and Nutrition Unit is due to open in January 2008. It has space for 24 children with malnutrition and other diseases, plus a neonatal unit ready for sick newborn babies. Dr Doreen Agasha is leading this service. Dr Scott Kellermann, the founder of BCHC is working at the hospital and helping to create a new organisation called the Batwa Development Program The Health Centre took delivery of a new Ambulance in November. Many, many thanks to all of the people who made this happen.
It is already being put to good use transferring women in labour, helping teams to distribute mosquito nets in the community and expanding HIV testing and treatment outreach 52 babies were delivered at Bwindi Community Health Centre in November 2007, up from 25 in November 2006.
By next year we will have a hostel for waiting mothers, Caesarean Sections and a new Maternity ward. Dan, a new nurse, will be working full time on Family Planning (birth control) in the hospital and in the community from January. Uganda has the second highest fertility rate in the world and the average age is only 14! An ever-expanding population puts the environment under pressure and traps families in poverty People who helped support the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV project appeal in August 2007 will be happy to know that many babies are being born free from HIV, and that our midwife Evelyn will be expanding the program to other health centres in the District next year.
We have not seen any child die from malaria in the last six months, whereas last year we were losing one or two kids a week. The success of mosquito net distribution and spraying of houses has been phenomenal. The biggest killer of children is still an important disease. We want to double our efforts in 2008 to make sure that every child in the area sleeps under a net.
In 2008 we will be building a clinic for HIV patients. We already have 250 people in treatment, and we expect to be treating 750 by this time next year. The Kellermann Foundation in the US has agreed to help us with fundraising and information dissemination.
In the future updates will come from the KF from the email address BwindiHealth@yahoo.com. If you are happy to continue to receive information from BCHC then we would love to tell you what we are doing. How can you help? The best way to help our work is to support us financially. We can get most of the drugs and supplies that we need at relatively low cost in Uganda. Our biggest challenge is to pay the salaries of the staff who work here. We also need help with infrastructure development. Details of how to make donations are at www.BCHC.ug/how_to_donate.php. You can send money via the Kellermann Foundation (KF) in the USA, via a new Friends of Bwindi Community Health Centre in the UK, or direct to the Hospital in Uganda. All of the money that given via any of these routes goes directly to the Hospital. For more information please email BwindiHealth@yahoo.com
- $100 would buy 20 mosquito nets that prevent children and pregnant women from getting malaria
- $500 pays the salary for a month of the clinical officer who deals with most of the sick patients in the hospital day and night and works in the HIV clinic.
- $2000 funds the annual salary of a nurse working on the new children’s ward
- $40,000 is the projected annual cost of our entire HIV/AIDS service. In 2007 we tested 3500 people and enrolled 250 into treatment. Next year we will improve services in the hospital and take antiretroviral drugs into the community.
Merry Christmas, and a joyous holiday season
Dr Scott Kellermann
Dr Paul Williams