Due to the abundance of vegetation there are many hardy insects in Honduras and these tough insects own the domain. This means bugs bite much harder and with more vengeance than one who is not familiar might imagine. One major problem is the rural poor of Honduras do not have purified water which causes most intestinal parasites in most that are seen by the medical mission teams. One medical volunteer to Honduras from Canada remembers;
"When we give them the medication, they get better but then they re-drink the contaminated water and get re-infested. The poor quality of water also causes people to have fungal infections of the skin. The poor hygiene
conditions also causes scabies and head lice in epidemic proportion."
Of course prescribing antibiotics is not always possible as one volunteer said because if they prescribe antibiotics, they have to check if it needs refrigeration and most people in rural Honduras do not have electricity. The issue with parasites is significant and the medical professionals and their assistants spend a lot of time dealing with these issues. One MD from Canada on a medical mission to Honduras stated;
"In the US and Canada, if we you suspect a person has parasites, you do a stool sampling test and if it is positive you tell all your colleagues of your rare discovery. In Honduras, the way, you diagnose if a person has parasites, you ask them “Do you have parasites?” and they answer “Yes!”
Many Honduran children suffer from malnutrition and these same problems are visible in many of the rural villages throughout the country. A medical mission volunteer told us with great concern;
"When I ask one mother why her child was not eating properly, she answered: “We are poor. I do not have money to buy food.” That broke my heart!"
The poor quality of water causes also people to have fungal and bacterial infections of the skin. If these go untreated they can become very serious very quickly and many medical teams that visit are quite alarmed by what they see. One story nearly brought the volunteer to tears when discussing what she had seen;
"I saw a woman who had a very bad leg ulcer and her feet were turning black. She would need amputation if she did not get antibiotics by her veins. We explained everything to her and although she understood everything, she said 'I need to go back to my children and take care of them.' She went out back put her shoes on and headed back home."
Most of the rural Honduras women complain of headaches, neck and back pains but if you look at their lifestyle, they walk for hours with the babies on their back to get from one point to the other. The biggest family was one which had 13 children noted one medical mission volunteer. Without adequate transportation the problems are worsened. Make no mistake these are good people, caring folks and those needing assistance are;
"…f or the most part gentle, quiet, generous, gracious and grateful. The children are beautiful, well-behaved, loving and respectful. These children are the hope of Honduras"
This message appears on The Austin Episcopal Church Honduras Mission website. What a wonderful job that they are doing in Honduras. When medical mission teams go into Honduras what sorts of illnesses do they encounter? Well, indeed the list of medical needs of the rural poor in Honduras is very large. The Austin Episcopal Church Honduras Mission explains on their website of their herculean efforts; both serious and non-serious needs. Many non-serious needs are such things as;
Minor Illnesses
Simple Coughs
Viral Upper Respiratory Illnesses
Simple Intestinal Viral Infections
These occurred in nearly three-quarters of the people they saw. One medical mission team reports using over 40 gallons of cough medicine; cough syrup. Many of these medical missions go in loaded for bear and the lists of medicine gifts are of biblical proportions for instance one team reported dispensing;
100,000 Tablets of Generic Tylenol
4,000 Bars of Soap
100,000 Vitamins
3200 Toothbrushes w/Toothpaste
31,000 Doses of Mebendazole for intestinal parasites
450 Bottles of Lindane for head lice and scabies
Most of the rural Hondurans who show up for the medical clinic tours have multiple health issues or concerns. The same medical team noted that about 4% of the folks had Hypertension. Around 20% had Arthritis. Asthma did not discriminate by age, as it was 5% across the board with patients of all ages.
Intestinal parasites were quite common amongst all ages; each time they found this they went ahead and played it safe treating the whole family. Skin problems, fungus infections and allergic reactions were found in 10% of the patients, with 12 serious wound infections (cellulitis). Also 12 sexually transmitted disease cases were discovered on their particular medical team mission.