Microsoft word - april newsletter.doc

BAIRO PITE CLINIC
Bairo Pite Clinic, Dili, East Timor
Phone: (001-670-390) – 3324118 P.O. Box 259, Dili
http://bairopiteclinic.tripod.com/
Clinic News
April, 2005
The number of patients is increasing everyday. Nevertheless, the clinic is still running well with some help from the volunteers and from the government, especially the Ministry of Health (MoH), which always supports us with administration and the provision of medicine. According to the MoH rule, the central pharmacy will always provide medicine once a month. Sometimes, due to low inventory, we are able to request more drugs. Thus, The political situation this month has been difficult. The government wants to change the education system so that religion and moral subject are not compulsory or obligatory in all schools. Religion has been part of schools since Portuguese times, but the government would like to remove religion from the curriculum for reasons unclear to many people in East - Timor. This decision created a big reaction because the Catholic Church and many people in East – Timor do not agree with the government decision. They have conducted demonstrations for more than two weeks Despite all these things, activity at Bairo Pite Clinic has not been compromised. The daily patient activity is going well and we continue to go out to remote areas in mobile clinics.
1. US Naval Medical Ships Presence in East – Timor especially at Bairro – Pité
The U.S. naval ships and the medical ships, USS Niagara Falls and Mercy, visited the clinic for four days with the objective to help with consultations. One of the crewmembers was a spectacles manufacturer and distributed glasses to the patients. The military is not only helping in consultation, but have also helped us in other areas such as doing cleaning and helping to cover the holes around the They were willing to help us do some painting, but due to the earthquake in Sumatra, especially Pulau Nias, Indonesia, they were unable to do so. They received the command from their leader to go and assist the population there, who were in need of emergency assistance. Thus, they cannot fulfill our request to provide medicine and some important equipment. They promised that they would try the best
2. Most Important Disease
Dengue is decreasing now, but unfortunately, we have had an outbreak of Pneumonia and Malaria – Plasmodium falciparum. The number of patients is always increasing day by day.
3. Volunteers Development
Medical student are quite plentiful now. Leesl is from Australia; she is a social worker from Melbourne and will assist our social worker Alarico for one year. She speaks a little Tetum; she is attending a Tetum course every afternoon to learn more. Ben, a medical student from America, and his wife Yang has been here for several weeks. Simon, Ana, Rachael, Louise, are medical students from England. Kishani and Johanna are medical students from Australia. Ramesh, a volunteer who came last year to work for four months, will spend two weeks at Bairo Pite Clinic and Bakhita Center in Ermera. The old faces, Dr. Olivia, Charlotte, Virginia, Anthony, Eleanor, Izumi, and Lucy, have returned to their country. Beginning June 2005, Virginia will be an administrator at Bairo Pite Clinic for seven months. This is the plan as of now because she still must complete her Thesis.
4. General Information
Two final year medical students who came last year, Solomon Kamal–Uddin and Chern Siang Lee from London University, will soon be publishing their research regarding drug resistance in treatment of malaria. At Bairo Pite Clinic, they received the help of Dr. Daniel Murphy in conducting the project. Their research shows that Plasmodium falciparum is resistant to Fansidar (sulphadoxine – pyrimethamine) and that new drugs must be used in order to fight the disease. Recently, we have requested permission from the Ministry of Health to publish the study. We congratulate both for their initiatives in conducting this research with the goal to share the knowledge; experience and contribute a new introduction in develop a good health management in this
6. Medicine
Medicines provided by central pharmacy always run out before a new supply is available. This is partly because medicines are allocated between Bairo Pite Clinic and the mobile clinics. Therefore, we need to buy drugs from the private pharmacy every now and then, though they may not have the drugs we need. It is indeed difficult for us to prescribe the proper medicine to the patient sometimes.
7. Patient Record
Maternity Post
Immuniz-
Dental Care Inpatient Total
Consult-
Planning
8. New Programmes
Ina Carbridge, spouse of East – Timor Sun Director, has agreed to help our clinic by providing equipment for building maintenance, such as painting, make a new verandah for patients to wait under the shade, cleaning of the toilets and drain, collection of rubbish. Regarding to the history of East – Timor, HIV / AIDS now becomes an important problem that we need to pay attention. The Brazilian Ministry of Health has a great objective on this issue and they have invited participants from our country and others to join in this conference. The Ministry has chosen Dr. Daniel Murphy, among other participants, to go to Brazil for two weeks.
9. Some of our Patients
The acetic patient Maria and her father have returned to East – Timor. The operation was successful and now she is in a good condition. Ana, Anthony, and Eleanor picked them up at the airport and visited Dr. Daniel along with the rest of the staff. Chloe’s father gave a package to Dr. Daniel Murphy, which contains medicines. Maria looks different compared to the last two weeks when we sent her to Australia and we all feel very enthusiastic with this good result. On behalf of them, I would like to present our sincere gratitude and thank Dr. Noel Bailey and the other volunteers who have contributed many things (their names mentioned in last month March newsletter). Before we took them home, we advised her to be on high alert not to much salt, sweets, hot, spice etc. In addition, we advised her to A man with a history of leprosy, Antonio, has recovered a little and seems active now. The principal parts of his body as legs and hands move well, his wounds have healed a bit, and he eats and drinks Mrs. June Flanagan and Shirley are the former Rieke Masters working at Bairo Pite Clinic for more than six months last year 2004. They returned to East – Timor on 2 April 2005. They will do their job for one month and we are very happy of their presence. Rieke is playing an important role in healthcare, which gives spirit and courage to patients. As a result, patients are more flexible; they solve problems they were confronting before, instead of keeping such problems inside and worrying. Through Rieke, the mind is freed of stress and negative energy; the healing process is much better for We would like to thank for all your kind help to our clinic

Source: http://bairopiteclinic.tripod.com/pdf/BPCNewsApr05.pdf