Cholera getting Closer

Last week we had two of our employees ask to use our truck to transport family members who were sick with Cholera to the local clinic.  The first time was at 7:30 at night and Nick hoped in the truck and headed to the clinic.  Earlier that day we had been in town and saw a ton of rented vehicles (at $80 US per day) for this one particular organization.  I'm not going to name this organization because I don't want to get any hate mail, but I will just say that I guarantee that you all have heard of it.  All of the vehicles we passed only had one person in them and we were commenting on how much they must have spent to have this fleet.

Once Nick got to the clinic, he was originally impressed by how nice it was.  They had a really nice, expensive tent, and he thought that they were providing a great place for these people to go and get the medical attention they need.  Then he walked inside, and his mind was completely changed.  There were no beds, not one.  All the patients, who were already extremely uncomfortable from massive diarrhea and vomiting, were laying on the ground on tarps, rocks, and mud.  When Nick got back he was just disgusted and kept telling me how awful he felt for these people and how sad it was.

It's hard to know that they are spending thousands of dollars on vehicles, that appear to be in excess, when they could be spending this money on beds or medical supplies.  It's frustrating because some people have the attitude that what ever we do is better than nothing and so people should not be complaining about the quality of care because at least they are getting it.  In some ways this is true.  If it weren't for all these clinics, people would be way worse off.  But, it doesn't mean that these patients shouldn't be treated with respect.  I wouldn't want to lay on the ground, especially if I were deathly ill.

Now to be fair, I have to admit that I may not have all the facts regarding this particular situation.  It could be that this clinic just opened and that they decided to take patients right away rather than waiting for the beds to arrive.  Or, maybe they shipped beds in, but with all the political unrest they just haven't arrived or got lost.  These are all possible, however, I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't any bed on the way and that what he saw is all there is.

With two cases of Cholera literally right down the road from us, what precautions are we taking to prevent it from spreading to us?  Nick just bought a new water filter that will remove the Cholera bacteria.  We have our own clean well that already went through two cleaning cycles.  Basically, we didn't have to worry about it before, and now we really don't.

As far as I know both people we took to the hospital are doing fine and were discharged from the clinic!
I have not heard of any of our other employees family members having Cholera either so that is good!!  Meci Jezi!