Zambian Hospitals

If you have been following up with our blog, you will know that Andrea and I got a little sick. Its funny. I had initially thought we had the same thing since since we both got sick at roughly the same time. However, it turned out that Andrea got a viral infection and I got a bacterial infection so we actually had completely different diseases.

I don't know about you, but getting sick in another country always is horrible. I don't know what it is. Maybe I'm not used to the bugs over here but Andrea and I were basically bedridden for 2-3 days and I was sleeping so much that my back started to hurt from laying in bed for so long. What is worse, is that you don't have all those amenities you are used to.

So after 2 days of flu-like symptoms, the head of EOH Zambia said that it would be best to take us to a clinic to get it checked out. Its winter time in Zambia so malaria is rare, but not impossible. So Phil, one of the Zambian EOH staff, picked us up and took us to the clinic. Since I was sick, I didn't even have a chance to shower for a while so I felt pretty gross.

The clinic was in the middle of town and it took us about 20 minutes to get to. We put our name down and started waited. After a few minutes, I was surprised because Mama Hawara-the head of the EOH Zambian office, showed up to see how we were doing. This was just a few days before the big Camp Hope event which is the biggest single event for the whole organization every year and I know everyone was really busy. I was really really surprised Mrs. Hawara took the time to stop by the clinic and see how things were. She talked to us a bit, sat down and waited with us for 15 minutes and then said she had to attend to business and errands. The fact that she even came at all was a surprise and something I appreciated about the Zambian Culture. No matter how busy people are, they still make it a point to make relationships a priority.

Well, after a few more minutes of waiting, Andrea and I went to see the doctor. The doctor asked a few questions and then basically ordered some blood work and tests done. Admittedly, I was pretty worried about the cleanliness of the Zambian hospital and when I found out that I was going to get blood drawn, I got a little uneasy. But blood was drawn, stool was taken, and within an hour, the doctor got the results and prescribed antibiotics for me and vitamins for Andrea.

Then I really started getting nervous. Throughout this whole time, there was no mention of cost and we were told to go pick up our prescription medicines and go pay. Well, I was thinking that it would cost hundreds of dollars, but instead, it only cost me $70 and Andrea $80. That's INCLUDING medicine, blood work, and the doctor visit. I can't believe it only cost that much. In the states it would have cost an order of magnitude more.

In general, medicine seems a lot more reasonable in Zambia than in the states. It definitely is a lot simpler with a single purpose-to get you better in the least amount of resources. The hospital doesn't have a lot of frills - they don't use a lot of anti-septic or even give you a band aid when they prick your finger for blood tests, the instrument used to take stool sample was... well... lets just say it was very difficult to to use, and the medicine is the most disgusting stuff I have ever tasted, but it works. Everything works it's just not the easiest to use or swallow. AND its cheap. More than reasonable compared to the cost of medicine in the states. Maybe we can learn a thing or two about how to do medicine. Make it simpler, with less frills and a lot less expensive. Do we really need every type of medicine to taste like cherry or orange?

Okay, well, those are my thoughts on the medicine in Zambia. Within 2 days of taking the Zambian antibiotics, I was back to being my perky self and able to write this post ;-)

Brian