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OU-COM
DOCTORS, STUDENTS AND RESEARCHERS JOURNEY TO KENYA TO
PROVIDE CARE, RESEARCH DISEASE AND FULFILL A
PROMISE
Contact:
Dwight Woodward, University News and Periodicals,
740-593-1886, woodward@ohio.edu;
Todd Anderson, University Media Productions, 740-593-1885,
andersok@ohio.edu;
Kevin Sanders, OU-COM, 740-593-0896, sandersk@ohio.edu.
ATHENS,
Ohio -- Aiming to build relationships and their knowledge
base, Ohio University physicians, researchers and students
departed for Western Kenya on November 26 to provide medical
care and conduct research from Nov. 27-Dec. 21. The
health-care group -- made up of physicians, students and
alumni from the Ohio University College of Osteopathic
Medicine (OU-COM) -- will be based in Kisumu, Kenya, and
will be working daily at the rural Ahero clinic, as well as
at public hospitals in Kisumu. The research team -- which
includes Ohio University international development studies
students and members of the Tropical Disease Institute at
OU-COM -- will be studying tobacco use in Kenya, the
prevalence of parasitic diseases, the feasibility of
solar-powered electricity for schools, testing for
sickle-cell anemia, and looking at the avenues in which
Kenyans receive their health information.
The
33-member SHARE (Student Health Assistance Rural Experience)
Kenya team will also be helping to fulfill a promise Benson
Bonyo, D.O., a native Kenyan and a 1998 graduate of the Ohio
University College of Osteopathic Medicine, made to himself
more than 30 years ago when he saw his 9-month-old sister
die of dehydration in his village of Wangaya near
Ahero.
Bonyo
started SHARE Kenya, in part, to make good on a pledge he
made as a child to somehow improve health conditions in
Kenya and help other children avoid tragedies at the hands
of preventable diseases. He helped lead a small group of
medical students to Kenya during the inaugural program in
1994, and was part of a larger contingent of Ohio University
physicians, medical students and allied health care
professionals that traveled back to Kenya in 1997, providing
care to 3,000 patients in the rural village of Ahero and
weathering the effects of a national nursing strike, cholera
outbreak and flooding. The spirit of those journeys
continues this year, as another group prepares to return to
Kenya to share their skills and develop an appreciation for
health care in a developing country.
"I can
still see her face, her pain," Bonyo says of his sister, who
died from complications of diarrhea. "She died from a very
preventable disease and from a lack of access to health
care. We can't solve all the health-care problems in Kenya.
We are just trying to help, to make a difference, and to
learn. Hopefully our work will have a ripple effect.
"The
degree of need may be different, but underserved populations
are everywhere, whether you're talking about Kenya or
Southeast Ohio," said Bonyo. "Students gain an appreciation
for making a difference to those in need during
international work, and that's something they can bring back
to wherever they practice. Personally, to see medical
students and professionals from the U.S. on Kenyan soil is
like a dream to me."
Becoming a
health-care provider was more than a dream for Bonyo, given
the fact that no one from his extended family had gone
beyond the sixth grade in education and the average annual
income in his farming village was $100 per year. But he
received a scholarship to a Catholic boarding school in
Kenya where they encouraged him to apply to American
colleges. He applied to dozens of schools, but only a
community college in Texas offered him a scholarship. He had
to raise $800 for the airfare, which he did by bicycling
door to door and from village to village, displaying the
scholarship letter and collecting small donations over
several months. He then went on to University of
Texas-Arlington and then the Ohio University College of
Osteopathic Medicine, where he became a physician in 1998.
He is currently completing a family medicine residency at
Akron City Hospital.
The SHARE
Kenya experience provides participants with a firsthand
understanding of health problems in an undeveloped country
where 60 percent of the population lacks access to basic
health services. Participants see and treat life-threatening
diseases including: malaria, cholera, tuberculosis,
HIV/AIDS, malnutrition, measles, pneumonia, fractures,
lacerations, and various parasite diseases. One-and-a-half
million people will die in Africa this year from malaria
alone, and the majority of them will be children. The United
Nations Joint Commission on HIV/AIDS lists the HIV/AIDS
prevalence rate to be as high as 30 percent among pregnant
women in Kisumu, Kenya.
One of the
main goals of SHARE Kenya, according to Bruce Dubin, D.O.,
OU-COM associate dean for information and planning, is "to
build a partnership of health care and education between
Southeast Ohio and rural Kenya so we can both mutually
benefit." International medicine experiences also provide
valuable opportunities for osteopathic students to see
emerging diseases and a different health-care system, said
Dubin.
"Given
that some of the diseases are global problems, it is
important for medical students to be able to recognize and
treat these diseases," says Dubin. "The flu shots we receive
this fall, for example, will be determined by the type of
flu found in Hong Kong earlier this year.
"In
addition to building cultural competency, there are lessons
to be learned from different health-care delivery systems,
which can be beneficial to the underrepresented and
underserved populations in our country.
Richard
Muga, M.D., a pediatrician who is the director of medical
services in the Kenyan Ministry of Health, shares this view,
saying that U.S. practitioners come away with a rare look at
diseases that have been virtually eradicated from American
soil.
"When you
visit a country like ours, you get an overwhelming
experience of tropical medicine and the various diseases
which are still a big, big problem for us in this region,"
says Muga.
According
to Daniel Marazon, D.O., OU-COM associate professor of
family medicine and academic head of the SHARE Kenya
program, both sides share and learn from each other.
"On a
doctor-to-doctor level, the Kenyan doctors are quite eager
to learn about our newer technologies. What we gain is
seeing their physical diagnosis skills, which are just
excellent."
In
studying world health issues and practices, there's no
substitute for a medical student, physician or scientist
actually being there "on the ground," according to William
Romoser, Ph.D., co-founder of the OU-COM Tropical Disease
Institute and professor of medical entomology.
"You can
read a lot of books and hear a lot of lectures about
emerging infectious diseases, but until you're where they
occur, you have no idea of the extent of the problem," said
Romoser. "When you see the reality, it has a totally
different effect."
Marazon
said one of the greatest benefits of international
experiences in Third World countries is that they push
students and doctors out of their medical comfort
zone.
"These
programs force trainees to depend on their history and
physical exam taking skills and to get back to the basics, "
said Marazon. "You can't depend on interpreting an X-ray or
reading a lab report to make a diagnosis.
"You have
to get close to the patient and use communication and
physical clinical skills," he said. "Look, listen and touch
the patient. These are all traits of our osteopathic
heritage."
1998
OU-COM graduate Will McDonald, D.O., a member of the first
SHARE Kenya group in 1994, agreed. He said his time in Kenya
has helped with his efficiency and empathy in patient
care.
"Experiences
like these put everything into perspective," said McDonald,
a family practice resident at Doctors Hospital in Columbus
who is part of the 1999 SHARE team. "The way we had to use
our physical diagnosis skills forces you to economize with
what you have available as a physician and not waste
resources.
"At our
clinic in Columbus, we have a lot of Muslim patients who
don't speak English, as well as patients who don't have
insurance, like the working poor. The Kenya experience
helped make me more empathetic to these populations.
"I would
advise any student to take part in programs like these. It
helps put the whole idea about medicine into perspective as
to why you're going to be a doctor. It takes you away from
the romanticized notion of medicine you see on ER and helps
make it more down to earth."
[
30 ]
News
directors, editors: Benson Bonyo, D.O., a 1998 graduate
of the Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine, and
OU-COM professor and SHARE Kenya academic head, Dan Marazon,
D.O., left for Kenya on Thursday, Nov 18. The remaining
members of the SHARE team will depart from Port Columbus at
3 pm Friday, Nov. 26 on Northwest Airlines Flight 3633.
While in Kenya Nov. 28-Dec. 22, the SHARE team can be
reached via email at: milimani@net2000ke.com,
011-254-35-23245 (phone); 011-254-35-23242 (fax), or at
011-254-341-21014 (Ahero Clinic). Background information on
the SHARE Kenya program, Kenya and the Luo tribe, and photos
of Bonyo and the 1997 SHARE Kenya team can be found at:
http://www.oucom.ohiou.edu/media/
Video from the '97 program is available on Beta; Photos,
video interviews and B-roll of the medical and research
team's work in Kenya this year will also be available during
the expedition.
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