“To the doctors and pharmacists who died, victims of their devoutness during the epidemic of 1878, Gorée.”
In this photo from Ile de Gorée, an island off the coast of Dakar, Senegal, Carie Cox reminds us how health workers often sacrifice their own health or safety in order to care for their patients. In many countries, they may not have essential supplies to protect themselves or face occupational hazards or other safety concerns. Instead of contracting yellow fever in 1878, as the statue references, they may be exposed to HIV and risk infection because they have no postexposure prophylaxis. They may contract a serious illness because they don’t have access to clean running water to wash their hands. They may travel dangerous roads at night on the way to or from the health facility. They may be targets for attack during armed conflict. Read more »
ricia Bond was working as a nurse at a health facility in South Africa when she developed some troubling symptoms. Eventually she was diagnosed with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), a dangerous form of the disease that doesn’t respond to the usual medications and is notoriously difficult to treat.
