Jorunals from Africa - Ethiopia #2

Dear Friend,

We have left Ethiopia and are in the Congo now but I am going to try to catch up on some Ethiopia stories and information. During the tour of the clinic, I learned that the clinic performs regular health education that is need based – vaccinations, disease control, etc. 46% are underweight and 69% are average weight, thus, the LS clinic has a focus on malnutrition. Infertility has dropped and the LS clinic is finding it more and more necessary to teach families, especially mothers, to manage pregnancies. Hygiene problems are also an issue dealt with in health education.

100% of the patients at the clinic get vaccinated and they do not discontinue vaccinations. The patients are vaccinated for eight diseases – there is 70% vaccine coverage in Addis, but in some places the coverage is as low as 5%. As far as vaccinations, the biggest problem they have is with the measles vaccination because herbal doctors tell people the vaccination is demonic and will aggravate the illness. There are rumors that polio is mixed with HIV – thus, Wondwossen says education about polio is important. Wondwossen said he has indeed seen cases of polio…mostly come from two counties in Ethiopia. Most patients reject the injected vaccine for polio but will take the oral vaccine.

Wondwossen says sex ed is also important because though public and private schools are required to have sex ed, requirement is more a policy than a practice. Thus, it’s his duty to go into schools. The media and government say sex ed is covered in schools, but it is not done well.

Other clinics have sent patients to Wondwossen’s clinic for lab tests because their facilities are better.

Each physician/staff member may only serve on purpose – they are not allowed to do double-tasks – according to the Ethiopian government.

There are 1.2 million blind in Ethiopia. 600,000 of these people are blind due to cataracts. Also, vitamin A deficiency, and a majority from STDs that affect baby at birth. A lot of this blindness is curable/preventable – cataract surgery, etc.

Religion in Ethiopia: Evangelicals – 18%, Muslims – 33%, Coptic – 49%.

More later….

B-rizzle