By Gardy Chacha
The patients in the long queue smile and chat easily. They are optimistic that the cause of their pain will be explained and sorted out today. For days, these Emusire villagers in Emuhaya constituency have anticipated the medical camp and now that it is here, they are sure their pain will be over.
In Emusire, just like many other villages around the country, the best facility is a health centre without basic essential equipment. A nurse is the highest ranked medic that treats them. The thought of seeing a doctor today, for the first time in their lives for many, is overwhelming.
This camp, which was recently organised by Safaricom Foundation and Kenya Diabetes Management and Information Centre, saw residents come out with sicknesses they have lived with for many years.
They saw various specialists who diagnosed them with a myriad of diseases, some that sounded like Greek.
Densely populated
Emusire is small — about 10km2 — but densely populated. The inhabitants share Emusire’s meagre resources and rely on agriculture as their source of livelihood. Majority of the population live in squalor and paying for health services is a luxury they can’t entertain.
District Public Health Officer Elsham Ambale says: “Not many residents here own more than an acre. So, farm produce barely sustain families’ daily needs. That is why health care for them is elusive and most would prefer the less costly traditional medicine.”
The team of 15 doctors, 20 clinical officers and several medical assistants treated the old and the young. More than 3,000 people had passed through their hands by the end of the one-day medical camp on September 29.
Tests for blood sugar levels were administered to check diabetes, a disease that has become common in recent years.
Diseased internal organs
The doctors at the camp recorded high cases of skin conditions, diseased internal organs, malaria and system blockages.
Other conditions included respiratory infections, diarrhoea, foot infections and topical abscesses. The hot and humid weather — due to the area’s proximity to Lake Victoria, — explains the numerous fungal presentations on the patients’ skin.
Many residents walk barefoot on soil surfaces infested with parasites thus the many foot problems. Mosquitoes and fly species roam the area and in their wake, malaria and diarrhoea afflict the people. The people normally treat these ailments with herbs.
Some people came to the camp, not because they were unwell, but because of a desire to get free medicine.
As is Kenyan culture, when they thought the medicine would be given out before their turn, some jostled to be attended to ahead of the line. But there was enough medicine. All those deserving medicine did not go home empty-handed.
A beneficiary, Violet Khasaya, a mother of a newborn baby, could not hide her joy after her sick baby was attended to.
She said: “My baby has been sick and I didn’t have money to take her to a good hospital.”
Unique cases also cropped up. One such case involved Mary Lihondo, who was adamant — contrary to medics’ opinion — that in the night urine emerges from all her orifices.
Clinicians examined her and found out she was acid intolerant, which means that excess stomach acid at times regurgitates back to her mouth.
“She needs counselling to believe that it’s not urine that bubbles up her system but rather fluids comprising stomach acids,” explains Dr Ouma Oluga, one of the volunteers.
The health professionals, drawn from Emusire Health Centre, Emuhaya and Vihiga district hospitals, Kakamega Hospital, the Kenya Dental Association, Kikuyu Eye Clinic and the Diabetes Management and Information Centre offered their expertise during a time when they were on a nationwide strike to push the Government to improve health facilities.
Dr Oluga said: “We are here to help these people because we know many of them are suffering. We could be on strike but it’s because we have valid arguments that need to be addressed.”
In a single day, within a span of nine hours, the Emusire residents went into jubilation for the rod of conventional medicine had struck their soil and left a mark of inviolable love.