A memorable Christmas in Chad thanks to new pharmacy
Tralee pharmacist, Louise Keane, is spending the festive season volunteering her skills in a remote corner of southern Chad with Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
Louise has been building up the pharmacy services and training Chadian staff in a district referral hospital which MSF runs in conjunction with the ministry of health since May.
“At first it seemed like the eight months I was due to spend here was a lifetime. But the time is galloping along now that I only have a few weeks left until my end of mission in January. I suppose it is because there is never time to experience the luxury of boredom. There is definitely no shortage of work.”
Midway through her assignment, Louise experienced an emergency situation first-hand when the seasonal malaria epidemic reached an unprecedented scale and they treated 2,400 patients in five weeks.
“The number of patients, the positivity rate, and the severity of sickness were all off the charts.
“When the hospital buildings were bursting at the seams we erected tents on site to serve as extra wards. As the pharmacist, I was desperate for more medications and had to put in an emergency order to our headquarters in Amsterdam for extra supplies to treat the crowds of patients presenting at our hospital and ensure we didn’t run out.”
Thankfully, the building of a new hospital pharmacy got under way in August. Louise reports that she and her team of Chadian staff are now “happily installed in our new pharmacy and it is truly a wonderful improvement. My colleagues in Europe would no doubt turn up their noses at the spec of the building, the quality of the materials used and the lack of fine finish but to us it is magnificent.”
She adds: “The most fabulous benefit of the new pharmacy is that it houses all our stock under the one roof whereas previously it was split over three locations. This really improves the efficiency of our service and stock management. And I am glad to report that so far it is rat-free.” Previously she has reported that rats love the sachets of peanut-based therapeutic food they give to malnourished children.
“Having a fridge in the pharmacy has revolutionised our lives. Medication of proven quality is shipped from Europe so it is vital that quality is maintained until it reaches the patient.”
Keeping temperature-sensitive medications cool may not be the biggest challenge in Ireland, but in the relentless Chadian heat the installation of air-conditioning in the pharmacy brings back fond memories of home.
“Now I can work without being in a sweaty mess all day, even if my Chadian colleagues are finding it a little frosty for their internal thermostats — they keep telling visitors to the pharmacy ‘welcome to Ireland’ because to them it’s so cold. I’ve tried telling them that we are lucky if it ever reaches 23C in Ireland but I don’t think they believe me.
“My main function here is to build capacity in our Chadian national staff to allow them to continue the work alone. It is tremendously rewarding. Creating something tangible and lasting up from the ground, physically in terms of the building and functionally in terms of the systems gives one a warm and fuzzy feeling for sure.”
However, Louise won’t miss the local insect population when she returns home.
“The mosquitoes are a particularly devilish breed here and they do not follow the established rules of biting only from dusk to dawn, but continue to bite during the day. I am so bitten all over that I look like a measles patient.”
Louise is looking forward to a different kind of Christmas as she makes plans to celebrate with the team of 15 international staff.
“This Christmas will be my first ever away from Ireland and my family and although there will be no turkey, ham or time off work, I am betting it will be unique and memorable anyway. Funnily enough, you can’t get basic things like toothpaste here, but you can buy bottled Guinness.”
