How to catch malaria

A MEDICAL PLACEMENT IN KENYA IN THE 1970s

Paul Crook’s talk was about a four month placement when he was a medical student at the University of Birmingham. It was to a Methodist Missionary Hospital at Maua in 1971. He flew to Nairobi where he saw a mosque and jacaranda and bougainvillea in flower for the first time. He was met by a nurse and driver in a VW people carrier and taken 140 miles to the hospital. Maua is a town at 5000’ near Mount Kenya that had a population of 11,0000 with another 40,000 living in the countryside nearby. The outpatients waiting room was some grass and a few chairs. All the senior staff were British with two doctors, a matron, a chief midwife and two nurses on VSO. With so many people living in the countryside, it was normal for a VSO doctor to regularly go out to rural areas with a nurse and some medical equipment. One day the doctors had to go into Nairobi leaving him as the principal medical opinion on site! The area had seven main tribes with many sub-divisions and different languages. The official languages are Swahili and English. The population then was 11.75 million but is now 53.75 million. There were many childhood illnesses with malnutrition, malaria and TB. Aids is now an additional problem. The death rate has fallen by 60% since 1971. Education is free from 6 to 14. It was a valuable learning experience and before leaving he even had the chance to go on safari. After being back in Britain for three years he was surprised to find that he had caught malaria.