We have a chicken pox outbreak in the community at the moment - you can see a
lot of children and adults going around covered in white.
The people in Kroo Bay mostly come from the countryside and they are big
believers in traditional herbal medicine.
For chicken pox they ground the leaf of a bean plant, then mix it with local
alcohol and chalk and rub it on the skin. It actually works.
Unfortunately they don't allow people in the treatment to wash, which worries
us in the clinic.
Of course if they came to the clinic, the treatment they would get from us
would work much faster.
Chicken pox is a viral infection so we treat the symptoms, we give them
calamine lotion and depending on the symptoms drugs for infections, fever or
anaemia.
Market delivery
This week has been quiet in the clinic, but yesterday we had a happy and
unusual story - a woman gave birth in the middle of the market.
The woman, Marianne, told us she went to the market to buy food to go home
and cook and on the way she started feeling some pains in her belly.
But she ignored them until she felt something heavy and she called the woman
around her to help, and just then she gave birth to the baby.
Immediately they rushed the woman and the baby to the clinic - they were both
fine and very healthy.
Marianne, 45, walked to the clinic herself, just after giving birth!
The baby weighed a healthy 4. 5kg.
For a baby in Kroo Bay that is a very good weight. The average weight for a
baby here is around 3.2kg.
It was so nice, we were all so happy.
The baby, who has not yet been named, was Marianne's 9th but two died shortly
after birth.
We have a chicken pox outbreak in the community at the moment - you can see a
lot of children and adults going around covered in white.
