Under-5 Clinic, Resources

Went to under-5 clinic where they just got a new supply of vaccines.  They had ran out a few weeks ago, and didn't have the fuel to pick it up from the overseeing district, Kailahun, so I helped supply some fuel.  So this Friday was focused on giving vaccines.  It was very efficient.  The nurse collected all the health cards, and read of 15 names.  The mothers would carry their baby and put them on their lap as they sat in a row on a bench in a tiny room.  Then the nurse would go across and give two drops of polio OPV in each babies mouth as they made disgusted faces.  Then she would give a penta vaccine (dpt, h flu, heb b) on one leg and pneumococcus vaccine on the other.  Each baby was so happy and unsuspecting, but then undoubtedly, they would start crying.  It was amusing to hear the different kinds of cries.  Then, they would have another row of mothers sit on the opposite side of the bench where there is more light for the nurse to administer the bcg subq.  Very efficient indeed!  

Also have been doing some online global health courses on globalhealthlearning.org.  Pretty helpful website with various topics/certificates. 

Resources I found to be very useful:

• Medscape, epocrates
• Catherine Wolf, M.D., Dennis Palmer, D.O.  Handbook of Medicine in Developing Countries.  

·        Also got a list of medications in the dispensary and emergency cabinet (for when the dispensary is closed – which seems like all the time) and list of laboratory tests available.  Wish I had gotten this the first week.

I ran into a bit of trouble regarding obtaining HIV tests on patients.  Apparently I'm not supposed to write for HIV test on the chart like every other test but that there's a specific procedure that involves writing "counseling by so and so," and then so and so is supposed to go counsel the patient on HIV first, and if the patient agrees to the HIV test, then she will get the test and tell you the result.  It makes sense considering how HIV is still so stigmatized, but I really wish I had known about this during orientation.  (Details later).