7/21/20: SCF BUYS PPE FOR BDDH!

  

PPE FOR BDDH:  As the SARS CoVid 19 pandemic erupts around the world and surges in the US the Sandy Christman Foundation looked to our friends and colleagues at the Biharamulo Designated District Hospital (BDDH) in Tanzania.  We inquired about PPE for the hospital and we were told there was none. This was going to be a problem. I was unsure about what Covid-19 would do in Africa but I had been through some near misses with epidemics in the past so we thought we should act in a preventive manner. During   the  Ebola crises, first in east Africa and then in Kivu, DRC, I saw how fear preceded the arrival of Ebola. Even though it never came to Biharamulo, the Kivu district in the DRC is less then 200 miles from Biharamulo and border checkpoints are porous. Even in rural, impoverished west Tanzania everyone knew about Ebola and its deadly effects. One day in 2016 a Public Health official from Dar es Salaam came to BDDH to give hospital staff instructions on donning and doffing a hazmat suit in the event that Ebola could appear. A serious discussion turned into comedy as he stumbled and tripped his way into the suit. He finally needed help from a few of us. In the end the suit didn’t fit and as he left I wondered if this was his first try on.   Then in typical East African logic he left with the suit leaving the hospital and probably all of west Tanzania with no hazmat suits. Where we would get one, perhaps on short notice, was a question no one asked. Ebola remains active in the DRC (last outbreak reported June 2020). Luckily, to this day there have been no reported Ebola cases in Tanzania. 
   With that memory and knowing their limited resources the Sandy Christman Foundation decided to act last May to get PPE for BDDH.  The full extent CoVid remains a mystery but we are pretty sure HazMat’s while effective are not needed for this out break. With the help of Dr. Gresmus Sseboyoya we transferred $1500.00 USD to the hospital. Within a week the hospital purchased, masks, gowns, gloves, eye protection and sanitizer to prepare for the likely arrival of the virus. As of this writing the government of Tanzania is not recording CoVid cases or deaths. There is minimal or no testing done in Biharamulo and no facility to treat severe respiratory or multisystem failure from CoVid anywhere in western Tz. For further information on CoVid 19 in Tanzania or East Africa go to: www.https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html

MASKS ON, SOCIAL DISTANCING....NEXT

   At the SCF we remain ready to help BDDH and the people of western Tanzania as the situation unfolds.

UNLOADING PPE