"I hope you can cure Reginal"
Save the Children's mobile clinics and medical teams are already seeing cases of diarrhea, malaria and respiratory infections.
The organization's 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 rains come. 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.
Save the Children also is working hard to improve sanitation and bring clean water to families in temporary encampments. It has recently scaled up the distribution of shelter items, with a plan to reach 70,000 families over the coming weeks. About 12,000 displaced children and adults now have access to latrines, water points and bathing areas installed by Save the Children.
Reginal's story
Bernadette Esterline brought her son, Reginal, 9 months, to this Save the Children health clinic for scabies, a contagious skin infection caused by a tiny mite that burrows under the skin. It is common for scabies to pass from one person to another by close skin contact, and in crowded camp situations it spreads rapidly.
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.
Intense itching characterises this skin infection which, for Reginal, is worse at night. The infection has developed into blisters found between his fingers, on the inside of his wrists and on the soles of his feet. The visible marks in Reginal’s skin are caused by the female mite burrowing herself in the skin.
Bernadette told Save the Children that she and Reginal were outside her house when the earthquake struck. Her house was badly damaged, and she and Reginal are now living outside the home in a temporary shelter made of cardboard and sheets. She is afraid of sleeping outside and doesn’t know where Reginal’s father is. She has also not been able to go and receive food distributions so she is dependent on receiving food from her friends.
When we asked her how Save the Children could help she replied:
“I hope you can cure Reginal. He is very uncomfortable and now scratches himself all night and is making himself bleed. I am very happy that Save the Children is now here.”
Dr. Joachim Abdhias, a local doctor trained by Save the Children, prescribed benzoin benzyl to relieve the itching caused by scabies.
“Scabies is most common among people living in overcrowded conditions with limited ability to practice good hygiene” he said. “Because sharing clothing or bedclothes can pass scabies among family members or close contacts, I am recommending that Bernadette wash all their clothes in hot water and leave them to dry in the sun. We will see about 250 patients today. So far I have seen 5people with scabies. We have enough medicine to treat this so people are very happy to see us.”
