I wonder if we Americans realize how much computers are a part of our everyday lives. I’m not talking about e-mails, on-line shopping, or instant news. In a place with almost no computing power, things like medical records and databases present challenges I’ve never considered before. Everyone has their own medical record – it’s contained in a little cardboard-bound book (I believe it’s called a kitabo) that they take with them to a health center to show the doctor, and in which the doctor writes diagnoses and prescriptions. These books are almost unfailingly damp, dirty, and falling apart (the writing in them is also completely illegible to me). There’s no careful, easily accessible record of what treatment people have actually received, though the books do contain valuable information.
The issue of names here complicates things further. While I can’t say for sure that that they don’t exist, I have yet to encounter a family name (last name). Everyone has two names (so I am asked “what are your names?”) but they are both given names. One or both of these names shows up on medical records (for example, who received anti-retroviral drugs on a specific date) but often multiple people have the same names, or a person uses only one name, which may be very common. This, along with a lack of centralized computer database and the difficulty of following up with patients who have no address, makes reliable data collection and patient tracking extremely difficult. Just determining who received what treatment when is very hard. This issue of tracking and determining efficacy of treatment is just one obstacle that never crossed my mind, since I take these things completely for granted in the United States.
And as a quick anecdote about the unusual and impermanent nature of names here: a baby boy named Nixon was treated years ago, and sometime later returned for another ailment. His birth card showed the name Nixon, but his health card now carried the name Clinton, which his mother insisted was his real name. One can only guess that there will be a spike in the number of baby Obamas in the coming year
2 comments:
I noticed your strong affinity for the land there, the mountains, the river, the jungle. I imagine that the prevalent sense of planet earth there...and the absence of PDAs, WANs, LANs, File Extensions, Spreadsheets, Voicemail, ATMs, EZ-Pass, VISA cards, or SMS will only serve to progress you toward a different personal destination than all of us back here in circuit city. While we are headed towards more reliance on electronic communications, jpgs, and webcams to figure each other out (or confuse each other), you will be discovering new ways to communicate that we had not thought of. You will be growing you sense of awareness of others while we will be simulating the presence of others we do business with using video and audio. Where you will be in two years (in terms of personal growth) and where we will be are most likely not convergent destinations...
It's too funny you mention this about babies named Obama ... see this article from the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/10/us/politics/10babies.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=baby%20name%20obama&st=cse&oref=slogin
Apparently, from election day through the following Saturday (about 2 days), 43 of the babies born in just one hospital in Kenya were named after the Obamas (Barack, Obama, Michelle, etc.)!
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