Before COVID, scheduling a doctor’s appointment was a relatively easy task to accomplish for most Americans. In fact, you could see a “doc in the box” at a local walk-in clinic without an appointment if needed. The global pandemic has stressed health care networks all over the world to the breaking point and has exposed systemic weaknesses and failures. And yet in spite of the enormous death toll in the United States and other developed countries, health care systems more or less remain intact.
In developing countries like Malawi, the health care system is a patchwork of government-run hospitals and private health clinics that has always struggled to meet the medical needs of its citizenry. While this country has not seen the number of coronavirus-related fatalities as the United States, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, diarrheal diseases, and malaria are among the top preventable causes of death here (source: https://www.cdc.gov/globalhealth/countries/malawi/default.htm). There simply aren’t enough medicines, medical workers or hospital beds to meet the country’s needs.
Last week I had the privilege of accompanying the American Nurse in Charge Beth Evans and her husband Gary on a visit to the Central Africa Medical Mission (CAMM) clinic site in the village of Thunga, which they visit twice a month.
Continue reading “Mission of Mercy”