Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Cholera! What's that?

Posted on Tuesday, August 28, 2012by

If you haven't heard yet, there is a Cholera outbreak in Guinea as well as Sierra Leon. I had hear about the outbreak in Freetown earlier this summer and was sad because I am familiar with the living conditions in Sierra Leon and new it would be a long battle to fight. Upon arriving in Conakry last week it was passed on to us that the condition is almost as bad her in Guinea. This article has been circulating around my Facebook news-feed so I thought I would pass it along to you.This really isn't any major problem for us on the ship; yes they do have to process our water to an extra level and we do have to double check to make sure that our local food is being treated properly, but the real problem is for the people living out in the country and the people that will be coming onto the ship for surgeries in the near future. As far as crew is concerned we just have to make sure to drink water from the ship or from a reliable source and be extremely cautious about what we eat off ship. Simple hand sanitizer and properly cleaning your shoes will prevent us from having any major issues.

Cholera Epidemic Envelopes Coastal Slums in West Africa


Key Facts

  • Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal disease that can kill within hours if left untreated.
  • There are an estimated 3-5 million cholera cases and 100,000-120,000 deaths due to cholera every year.
  • Up to 80% of cases can be successfully treated with oral rehydration salts.
  • Effective control measures rely on prevention, preparedness and response.
  • Provision of safe water and sanitation is critical in reducing the impact of cholera and other waterborne diseases.
  • Oral cholera vaccines are considered an additional means to control cholera, but should not replace conventional control measures.
This coming Monday, September 3rd, we will have our general surgical screening. There could easily be 4-5,000 people show up with different conditions needing medical help. Please keep us in your prayers as we get ready for the day and as we are managing so many people in one day. We will leave the ship at 5:30 AM (about midnight Sunday for people at home) and will probably be gone for a full twelve hours. Please pray for energy and strength of all of our workers and that the right people will come to the screening so that we can schedule surgeries to do the next 10 months that we are in Guinea.

Finally, I have posted a link to a video. It was shown to us Sunday night at the end of our service as we began to know more about Guinea. The people of Guinea haven't been through any major civil war but they have endoured a lot over the last century. Please keep them in your prayers as a majority of them are Muslim.