Help Children in Vietnam To Have Good Health!

In this season of stress, we would like to assure you there is also a season of hope and great thankfulness.   “Where is that” you say?   It is in Vietnam!  There is rejoicing that another class of Management of Childhood illnesses has been completed and new doctors and nurses have learned that they have another tool to use in their work.  Let me share with you Ms. Thu’s story.  She is a 25-year-old mother of Lam who is her son.  Lam is 3 years old, and a very active child.  She is a rice farmer on a small plot of land just outside of her village in Central Vietnam.  She works hard, but ‘does ok’, in providing for her family.  Her husband is a bee harvester who goes deep into the forest to find and harvest honey.  It’s a hard job, and does not make much profit, but together they make an adequate income to support their family of 3. 

Last Sunday, Ms. Thu noticed that her son Lam was just sitting on their doorway with a flushed look on his face.  His little cheeks were flushed red, and he had a blank look on his face. This was quite unusual for Lam, as he was a very active child, loving to run in the Autumn mud in the small rice field. He would squeal with glee when the rich wet soil squeezed between his toes when he chased frogs through the rice field.  However, in the last few days he was not as energetic.  He was different, he was distant, flushed and not his vibrant self.  Several mosquitoes buzzed around his little head as he leaned against the open door.  Ms. Thu’s husband had gone deep into the forest to find honey to sell at their local market.  And he had taken the motorbike with him to the edge of the road where the underbrush was thick, and the likelihood of bee hives was greater.

She contemplated as to what she should do.   She felt his forehead, it was very hot today.  She knew she needed to get some help. Where should she go?  What should she do?  Then she remembered a few weeks ago, there was a new nurse who came to visit her village.  The nurse had told her she was going to be at the clinic as her new assignment and had just finished a course that helped caregivers like herself, and parents manage many of the illnesses of children. 

Ms. Lam scooped up Lam in her arms and hurried to her neighbor’s home to seek help.  Would her neighbors be able to take her by motorbike to the clinic which was about 6 km (over 3.5 miles) from their rural home?  By this time Lam was limp and flushed, his eyes were glazed, and he was breathing through his mouth.  

Ms. Thu, her son and the neighbor arrived at the clinic and received a warm welcome reception.   By this time Lam was beginning to shake.   He had a rash on the inside of his arms and his groin.  Quickly the nurse placed cool compresses on his forehead and started an IV.  Slowly he began to breathe easier, and the flushed look seemed to soften.  The nurse asked Ms.Thu many questions about when and how his symptoms seemed to progress.   

The nurse asked a series of questions was able to identify the typical signs and symptoms of serious bleeding, a sudden drop in blood pressure (shock) and even sometimes death. Together they worked through a triage that indicated Lam most likely had what is called “dengue hemorrhagic fever”.  

Millions of cases of dengue infection occur worldwide each year. However, it can be identified quickly and treated for optimal interventions. The nurse knew what do because she had taken the 11-day course sponsored by MEDRIX on how to identify and treatment for common illnesses in Vietnam.

Dengue fever is most common in Southeast Asia, the western Pacific islands, Latin America and Africa. But the disease has been spreading to new areas, including local outbreaks in Europe and southern parts of the United States.

The nurse at the clinic had recently finished a course sponsored by MEDRIX that teaches nurses, doctors and other medical personnel how to use a simple system of questions and answers that lead to possible root causes and probable actions needed.  In Lam’s case he needed careful watching and further medical attention over several days. 

The nurse arranged for Lam and his mother to be transported to the larger Children’s Hospital to receive the care he needed.  After a couple of weeks, he was well enough to return to his village home.   His dad was able to use a safe repellent for mosquitoes that transmit this type of fever and removed some of the standing water that was by the well just outside of their home.  

You can help a nurse or new doctor take the class that little Lam’s nurse took.  The global course is called I-MCI (Integrated -Management of Childhood Illnesses).  It is used particularly in tropical locations where standing water often breeds mosquitoes that carry tropical diseases. The fever is transmitted through the bite of the mosquito.

I-MCI is used internationally.  MEDRIX sponsors this course in Hue, Vietnam for nurses and doctors who are new to the area and will be working in rural places where Dengue is prevalent.    

You may help save another child by supporting this course. Send your sponsorship today.  Save a child by helping to sponsor a health worker.