Meeting Recap

Last Sunday, April 17th, we had another meeting at MUSC for our upcoming trip to Masindi, Uganda. It was an eye opening lecture about diseases that we will most likely encounter, what symptoms to look for, and what medications to prescribe. It was amazing to me to learn that on average most Ugandans are bitten 100 x per month by mosquitoes carrying malaria. Basically we will be treating almost every person that we see for malaria. Another common thing we will see is diarrhea. Something that all of us have faced here in the States but almost none of us have considered diarrhea life-threatening. To most Ugandans it can be because they have it for such an extended amount of time and are unable to rehydrate properly. To me, the most devastating news that we received during this meeting is that Ugandans get better access to health care when they are HIV+ than if the are negative. Because AIDS is so prevalent in Africa, The AIDS Support Organization, or TASO, has set up health care centers in many different countries to take care of those affected. In Uganda, these centers are basically the only place where you can get quality health care. However TASO will only see patients who are HIV+.

The more meetings I go to the more excited I get about going. I feel truly blessed to be given this opportunity. Thank you to those who are supporting me on this mission. If you haven't visited www.palmettomedical.org and watched the video please do so. If you can watch it without shedding a few tears then you are a much stronger person than me :).