Undercurrents

The ambulance of the Nam Tra My Zero-cost Love Trip Club picks up students and parents discharged from the Quang Nam Maternity and Pediatrics Hospital. Photo: Provided by the Club

Worship to cure diseases

Mr. Le Huy Phuong - Principal of Tra Don Primary Boarding School - the person who crossed the forest at night to take his students to the emergency room, is still not sure what other diseases his students will face. There are still a few primary school students from Tra Don being treated in Tam Ky. Most of them are poor students.

"There are about 20 students from Tra Don Secondary School who were treated in Tam Ky and have returned. But when this group returned, several other cases appeared. It cannot be completely stopped" - said Mr. Phuong.

Being both the principal and the driver of the Nam Tra My Zero-cost Love Trip Club, during the past days of March, he was busy taking patients, who were also his students, back and forth regardless of the time.

The number of children with the disease in the highlands of Nam Tra My is difficult to accurately count. The reason, according to Mr. Phuong, is that many children currently do not have birth certificates.

When the children were sick, their parents still kept them at home to pray, bathe them in herbal water, and drink water boiled from forest leaves. Only when the children grew up and went to school, and saw signs of illness, did the teachers ask them to go to the clinic or notify the local health department, then they knew that the children were sick.

The free bus took Nam Tra My students to the emergency room at night at Quang Nam Maternity and Pediatrics Hospital. Photo: HUY PHUONG

Two sisters, Ho Thi Thu Suong and Ho Thi Thuy Tien (Tra Don commune) were taken by Mr. Le Huy Phuong to Quang Nam Maternity and Pediatrics Hospital for treatment. Their father also went with them. Men are not good at taking care of children in hospitals. But the family in the mountains could not arrange it because the mother still had a small child at home.

Mr. Nguyen Duc Hung Son - Director of Quang Nam Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital said that there were dozens of pediatric patients from Nam Tra My who were brought down and the accompanying person was the father of the children. The hospital had to send a nurse to help take care of them. After a few days in the hospital, along with 10 other children, Suong and Tien's two sisters were discharged.

The village had children with fever, at first they thought they were just sick from the weather. When their bodies were covered in red spots, some families were scared and set up altars. But it didn't go away, until Master Phuong came and asked them to go to the hospital. Some help from individuals, with the guarantee that people going to the hospital would not cost money, and would even receive additional support. At this time, a series of children were taken to the hospital by their parents.

The story of the children in Tra Don is not an isolated one. In villages deep in the mountains and forests, measles spreads like wildfire. Lacking vaccines, knowledge of disease prevention, and remote roads, children in the highlands are the most vulnerable.

Mountaineering Medicine

Quang Nam is launching the second round of measles vaccination, after nearly half a month of "lightning-fast" efforts to eliminate vaccine-free areas. The "white blouse" warriors are crossing forests, streams, and rooftops to find children. But that does not lessen the worry about other infectious diseases appearing.

The free bus took Nam Tra My students to the emergency room at night at Quang Nam Maternity and Pediatrics Hospital. Photo: HUY PHUONG

Nha Trang Pasteur Institute determined that the measles virus spreads very quickly, more than 90% of people who have not been vaccinated or have never had the disease will definitely be infected when exposed to the pathogen.

The fact that more than 300 children in Nam Tra My were infected at the same time shows a "vaccine gap" here. The Quang Nam health sector believes that perhaps during the COVID-19 pandemic, children were not fully vaccinated against measles, and the lack of vaccines for many months in 2023 has somewhat affected the vaccination rate among children.

Nam Tra My is a mountainous district, mainly inhabited by ethnic minorities, scattered in many places, the economic conditions of most people are still difficult, no longer having a support system for food when hospitalized is also a burden for the people. Somewhere people still have backward customs (worshiping when sick); vaccination and medical care for communes in the area have been a challenge for the health sector for many years.

And measles is just one of dozens of health threats hanging over children in the mountainous areas of Quang Nam. In the highland communes, many children still live in deprived conditions: malnutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, irregular deworming, and intermittent health care...

Children with measles are treated at Nam Tra My District Medical Center. Photo: HUY PHUONG

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hai - Head of Tra Van Commune Health Station said that there were people who had to travel for almost a day to reach them. In 2024, the Ministry of Health requested a change in the approach to preventive health care. From letting people come to the station, we must make sure that no child is abandoned in nutrition and vaccination campaigns.

Village health workers were mobilized to visit each house. They carried boxes of vaccines, waded through streams, climbed cliffs, and of course, brought more than just medicine. There was also faith in the hearts of those who came for the children of the mountains.

Ms. Le Thi Quyet - Director of Dong Giang District Medical Center once wondered: Can a mountainous commune with only one doctor cope when an epidemic strikes? Not only is there a shortage of doctors, mountainous medical facilities also face a situation of degraded infrastructure, lack of medicine and equipment.

The number of staff at the commune health station has never exceeded 5 people, and they take on many roles: examining patients, vaccinating, working as school health workers, and being population workers... Without the village health force, I'm afraid that mountainous health care will not only have gaps but also many "blank areas".

To see, doing health care in the mountains is not simply treating diseases. It is a journey of both healing and education, with people realizing the importance of health care. They are willing to go to the health station, to the health center when they are sick. Willing to get vaccinated. Willing to take care of their children according to the most basic principles.

The long war

Can an inadequate health care system protect thousands of children in mountainous areas from measles, hand, foot and mouth disease, or seasonal flu? Furthermore, what will happen if the district-level administrative units are abolished in the near future?

Children in Nam Tra My district are examined and screened for measles vaccination. Photo: ANH MINH

A communications expert believes that along with changing the administrative system, there will be a change in the way data is generated. The number of malnourished children, or some seasonal infectious diseases, will inevitably decrease. Of course, it is not the actual numbers that will decrease, but because we change the data model, it will change the way we look at the problem.

Fortunately, the medical center model is still maintained. Although the management level has changed quickly (from directly under the Department of Health to the District People's Committee and soon will return to the Department of Health), the medical centers will perform the function of being the place to care for and monitor the primary health of an area. Mountainous people are also expecting the story of the expansion of the commune level, the medical stations will be the stopping place for many good doctors (?).

A working group from the Pasteur Institute of Nha Trang and the Quang Nam health sector worked in Nam Tra My district to carry out the first vaccination for children. Photo: ANH MINH

Mr. Le Huy Phuong said that Tra Don is about 20km from Tra Mai center. This area is surrounded by mountains. The number of households escaping poverty is gradually increasing, but life is not free of suffering. Many school-age children do not have health insurance. Moreover, their parents still do not understand why they go to school when they will go to Ngoc Linh to grow ginseng when they are just a little older. These poverty scenes are not in the reports or statistics.

Teachers who stay in the villages and the local medical staff are the ones who understand best the hidden fault lines in highland life - like an undercurrent in the still surface of the majestic mountains.

Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/nhung-con-song-ngam-3152224.html