July 2010

  This is a question very few, if any, neonatologist ever faces in wealthier communities. Today I met this mother and her three-week old infant, who stopped nursing yesterday. Malaria is so very common here, even in the dry season, that the standard thick smear blood test is part of the work up of anyone […]

  This morning I arrived to find this man, who arrived with a history of weight loss (check out the cheek bones), abdominal pain, and cough for three months. One of the greatest challenges of ‘practicing medicine’ in this setting is the lack of testing available. In North America, he would immediately have a CT

  Several of you have written questioning whether we ever take any time off. Angola’s health crisis is a chronic one, and I totally resonate with the wisdom of enjoying some creative breaks from the action. On July 4th, while most American’s were igniting explosive devices, I took off with a group of Canadians and

  This lady, Cicilia, was riding along on the back of a Mosquito – these ubiquitous 50 cc motorbikes that scurry around the pot holes that make up Angola’s roadways. Her husband was driving, carrying their son on the handlebars. With one stout, unexpected jolt the lady was thrown to the rocks, lacerating her thigh

  Early death is an inconsolable fact of life. In the world’s poorest nations, like Angola from where I’m writing now, a quarter of children die before reaching school age, and adults can hardly expect to live much beyond age forty. Such disturbing truths motivate many healthcare professionals to do something bold on behalf of

  One of the saddest health problems in all the developing world is vesicovaginal fistula (VVF). It’s a hole created between a woman’s bladder and her vagina, resulting in a constant, uncontrollable flow of urine out the vagina. As a result, many these women – and often children under their care – are outcast by