August 10, 2014

The big news has been Ebola. Apparently the media is spending lots
of time about it, at least in USA. The truth about it is being sifted
out and maybe it is not as contagious as some have said. It is
transmitted via body fluids ie blood, urine, feces primarily. It
still is only in Guinea, Sierre Leon, Liberia, and Nigeria so far as
is known. There is none in Chad according to communiqué from the
Ministry of Health Saturday. Resavoirs of infection can include
fruit bats, antelope, and monkeys. So if more or less same
precautions are used as for HIV it should be ok. There is probably
no real danger in the US in spite of all the media and government
talkings about it. We are safe here at least for the time being.
I gave a talk to the hospital staff on Thurs about Ebola, what it is,
signs and symptoms, etc. There is no treatment except fluids and
perhaps blood. They should report anyone that they hear of that has
high fever and bleeding from anywhere. We all hope that no one sees
anyone that way.

The hospital here is pretty slow right now. Surgery has been really
down. Still lots of kids with malaria and typhoid. We have a
tetanus patient now. We did an amputation of an arm above the elbow
because it was necrotic below the elbow after an accident which was 3
weeks ago! We have had a bunch of normal OB deliveries and no
c-sections for a while. The volvulus around a Meckels diverticulum
band is doing well now. No surgeries the past 3 days WOW!!

We had over 5 inches of rain the past week on already wet ground that
is very flat. “Roads” have quite a bit of water on them. Lots of
water holes over a foot deep across the “road.” It is really pretty
and green everywhere and the crops look pretty good for here. It
rains a little almost daily. The humidity stays very high all the
time.

There are always lots of malnourished kids. Kim (our anesthetist’s
wife) is really trying to help a lot of them with the feeding and
education program but it cost lots of money. Some are malnourished
because of ignorance and some just don’t have anything. We have 27
bags (about 75 kg each) of rice that was given by the previous MCD
from some government program for patients in the hospital that need
something to eat but what about the other kids and moms that have
nothing?? It is another 2 months before much is available from
harvest.

The papayas are setting on now on our trees by our house. I counted
about 50 so far. The guavos are beginning to come on now.

It has been announced that there is cholera in N’Djamena now.
Cholera has been in West Africa since 1970. It is treatable with
LOTS of fluids and antibiotics.

Our emails are drbland@sbcglobal.net and dfbland01@gmail.com.
Love, Rollin and Dolores

Continue to pray that ebola stays out of Chad and that we continue to
stay healthy.