It's the rainy season
Friday, 6 January 2012 4 days of fever and then nosebleed… tourniquet test positive with petichiae swarming the distal forearm… platelet count 6…IGG also pos… yes, it is the rainy season.
Briony, final year medical student volunteers to stay all night during this most critical phase following pulse pressure and other signs and symptoms. Result? Patient much improved, crisis averted. Just too many Aedis Aegyptae around.
Just so readers don't lose their focus: Lola, number one TB lab tech in ET, reports 298 patients Zeihl-Neilson smear positive in our lab for 2011… we could expect 3 times that number with PCR if we had the resources to use it on screening samples. No doubt we must redouble our efforts at detection, treatment, and prevention.
Dr Dan Murphy is the head physician at Bairo Pite Clinic