Isuochi is a village in Abia State in the eastern part of Nigeria. Few days ago, we had an invitation to carry out a medical outreach in this village. The organiser of the outreach is a beautiful and wonderful woman who is deeply committed in touching the lives of her people. She provided the drugs and other resources that made the outreach a huge success.
I and some others quickly volunteered for this epoch-making outreach geared towards improving the health of these rural dwellers.
At first, I thought it was going to be a small medical outreach. The turn up of the villagers surpassed my expectation. We had hoped to end by 4pm so as to go back to the city on time. People kept coming and we could not but attend to them even when the stipulated time was up.
We took history of their diseases, ran point-of-care-tests and other less technical tests like using Rapid Diagnostic Test(RDT) for malaria. We dispensed the drugs to them accordingly. In addition, over 200 insecticide treated nets were distributed gratis to different families.
The predominant cases as expected were hypertension, enteric fever and malaria. We did not only give them drugs, we also counseled them on lifestyle modifications and prophylaxis to enable them lead healthier lives and avoid possible complications from the diseases.
I was very tired but I was fulfilled. It was reassuring to see smiles on their faces especially the elderly ones. They always leave us muttering 'God bless you' in their local diet.
God willing it, I would be organising a similar outreach in my own village when I have the resources to make the drugs available.