We seem to be on a downward trend here the last 2 days with our total inpatients staying overnight coming down in the mid-40s (from 60-70).  Here are some charts so that you can get a visual of the increase that we’ve been seeing over the last 2 wks.

In the last 10 days, we have seen 251 cholera pts.

Of these, 87 had to be put on IV fluids.  That’s 35% put on IVs.

The average pt is using 10 IV bags, though some use up to 30.

At the busiest, we were using 12 cases of LR per 24hrs.

They are dumping 60 buckets (that would be 300 gallons) of body fluids and waste water per day.

We had several rough nights.

We hired 15 new staff to help with the extra load.

We have done some quick training and  lots of cheat sheets to help new employees understand.  Many can’t read or write, but can understand anything explained to them and have hearts of gold.  Pictures help them remember the three types of bleach concentrations used.

There was one death.

Most cases came from one village – Dangoula.

Government officials held meeting today to educate and bring a solution to this surge of cholera cases.  Apparently, an organization gave out buckets, soap, and aquatabs (to purify water).  Some people in the area told everyone if they took these things and used them, they would carry the mark of the beast (“666”).  These same people told them that they didn’t need to purify their water.  Ummmm….mistake!  Today is the first day that we have not seen a majority of our pts from this area.  Maybe the education that we are doing with the pts is traveling back home with them.

Note that the actual number of new pts each day has only dropped a bit, but our total count in beds at the end of the day is lower.  There are a couple of reasons:  trying to use more ORS, sending pts home eariler, some pts aren’t as sick as those first few days because they started making ORS for them to drink on the way down.

We have served 1856 cholera pts to date.

WE COULD NOT HAVE DONE THIS WITHOUT YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!