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Peru – Outbreak?

November 10, 2007 - Peru

by Steve Henrichon

We attended a strategic health meeting a few nights ago at the San Juan de Dios Hospital in Pisco. At the meeting were representatives from the organizations involved in Health initiatives in Pisco. The discussion was about three hours and it was hard to concentrate that long. Towards the end of the meeting, an elderly man strolled in and waited for his turn to speak. He introduced himself as a physician in Pisco and he came to let everyone know that he just treated the first case of malaria that Pisco has ever seen. That got everyone’s attention. All of the doctors and health workers started getting all excited and nervous. While the chatter ensued, the elderly doctor turned around and strolled out of the hospital. Pisco is a desert environment which is not conducive to anopheles mosquitoes. Malaria is quite common in Peru’s amazon on the eastern slope of the Sierra, but not on the western slope.

After the earthquake, there has been much stagnant water around town which turn into breeding grounds for mosquitoes. Even though only one case has been identified, the health workers immediately began discussing the steps they could to help prevent a malaria outbreak.

Maybe its just the excitement of the health professionals of being invovled with a real live outbreak. Who knows what will happen. Looks like we could be adding on a new line of services to our clinic.

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