“Patients are relieved that Save the Children is now here"
Save the Children's mobile clinics and medical teams are seeing cases of diarrhea, malaria and respiratory infections.
As of Friday, February 19, Save the Children’s mobile health teams had seen 23,307 patients, including 8,267 children and adults in Port-au-Prince, 3,794 in Leogane and 11,246 in Jacmel. Health teams also have screened 1,122 children for malnutrition through mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) measurement. Thirteen children were found to have severe acute malnutrition and 30 were found to be moderately malnourished.
Save the Children staff is monitoring illnesses in camps, assessing the status of pregnant women and vulnerable children, and pre-positioning specific medications and supplies in preparation for a possible spike in disease when the rainy season arrives. About 170 health workers — including midwives and auxiliary nurses — are working with communities to encourage exclusive breastfeeding and to provide hygiene, nutrition and other health information.
Davidson's story
On the grounds of Village Gastron Magron, about 50 people are lining up to see doctors and midwives from Save the Children’s mobile health team.
Jacline St. Hilaire, 28, has brought her 1-year-old son, Davidson, to see Dr. Joachim Abdias, a local doctor who received training by Save the Children to work as part of emergency mobile units, bringing medical assistance directly to earthquake survivors. Currently 10 teams — comprised of doctors, nurses and other local health care workers — hold daily clinics in makeshift camps in Port-au-Prince, Jacmel and Leogane.
Most days, the team sees around 150 patients here. Since the disaster, Save the Children has been providing emergency assistance to save lives, including providing medicine and medical care to thousands of children and their families affected by the quake.
Little Davidson has a serious contagious skin infection caused by a tiny mite that burrows under the skin. Scabies now afflicts many earthquake survivors in crowded camps, where it spreads easily and where scarcity of clean water makes it very difficult to practice good hygiene. Intense itching characterizes this skin infection, and blisters cover much of Davidson’s small body.
On this day, Dr. Abdias prescribes benzoin benzyl to relieve Davidson’s itching. Because sharing clothing or bedclothes can ease the spread of scabies among family members or close contacts, Dr. Abdias recommends that Davidson’s mother wash all their clothes in hot water and leave them to dry in the sun.
Scabies is one of the two most common cases Dr. Abdias diagnoses, he says. The other is malaria.
“Last night it rained, and a big problem here will be malaria. Although it’s only morning, I have already seen five children who have scabies and 10 cases of suspected malaria. In the case of little Davidson, it’s very likely that he has caught scabies from his mother,” he says.
Dr. Abdias examines patients in one tent where community health workers also council patients and dispense medicines. Pregnant women are referred to another tent where a midwife often gives them their first prenatal check-up.
“Patients are relieved that Save the Children is now here, and word is spreading so people from other areas are also arriving. But it’s very noticeable that the patients we see they are deeply affected by the recent earthquake,” Dr. Abdias says. “For example, many people I have seen are not sleeping at night, as they are afraid to be sleeping outside.”
Save the Children is providing access to health services to an estimated 2,000 people living in this makeshift settlement since they were displaced by the devastating earthquake on January 12. Save the Children mobile health teams here offer midwifery, malnutrition and general health services.
