I sat enthralled to the TV as I watched a man called Dr. Beat Richner. I was watching a documentary called Dr Beat and the Passive Genocide of Children. You can read the Dr Beat story here and it is a very good read, he is an amazing man with dedication to helping children in need, I wish I was 1/100th of the person he is. I sat feeling ashamed at myself as I watched this man do so much.

Here is a brief synopsis of the man. He was born in Zurich on 13 March 1947. After receiving his medical degree in 1973 he specialised in paediatrics at the Zurich Children’s Hospital. In 1974/75 he was sent through the Swiss Red Cross (SRC) to Cambodia to work at the Kantha Bopha Children’s Hospital. His mission came to an abrupt end when the Khmer Rouge invaded the country. Dr. Richner was forced to return to Switzerland where he took up his former work at the Zurich Children’s Hospital. In 1980 he opened his own practice in Zurich, which he shared with a fellow practitioner.

In December 1991 Dr. Richner was asked by the Cambodian government to rebuild and manage the Kantha Bopha Children’s Hospital which was destroyed during the war; once again, his life took a sudden turn as he accepted the job. In March 1992 he created a foundation in Zurich, moved to Phnom Penh and began with the actual reconstruction work. On 2 November 1992 Kantha Bopha Children’s Hospital was back in operation.

He hasn’t stopped since then, he has lobbied and fundraised money through the Swiss government and other fundraising efforts and the King of Cambodia has been most generous donating land and others as well. With the funds he has gone on to build 7 hospitals in all. The man is a real life Saint.

The great parts about these hospitals are; they are free. The people receive free treatment, operations, medicine and even get travelling money to go to the hospital and return home. They also receive money for their follow up visits and the completion rates of patients seeing through their treatment is a high 90%. This is fantastic for the people who really need the help.

Anyway, the documentary was on Cambodian kids suffering at the hands of Tuberculosis, this is a disease that is highly treatable with the correct diagnosis and treatment. Sadly too many young children weren’t diagnosed right and given the wrong medication and suffered horribly, some ended up with terrible and permanent damage to parts of their bodies and others died. This is where Dr Beat has stepped in and started a campaign to save so many young kids with this disease.

TB has infected one third of the world’s population, one new infection every second of every day. I watched in horror as an 8 year old girl couldn’t walk, TB had infected her hip joints; this poor little girl was in excruciating pain, it was so sad to watch. They operated on her hip and removed puss and some bone and she recovered after time and is now virtually back to normal. Sadly many cases didn’t have this happy ending.

This is a list from the World Health Organisation (WHO) of the highest countries on the list of burden.

Burden ranking
1. India
2. China
3. Indonesia
4. Nigeria
5. Bangladesh
6. Pakistan
7. South Africa
8. Ethiopia
9. Philippines
10. Kenya
11. Democratic Republic of Congo
12. Russian Federation
13. Viet Nam
14. United Republic of Tanzania
15. Brazil
16. Uganda
17. Thailand
18. Mozambique
19. Myanmar
20. Zimbabwe
21. Cambodia
22. Afghanistan
India is number 1 on the list I wasn’t expecting that. Thailand was 17th and I really wasn’t sure where they would be.

The WHO has officially said “Thailand has historically had a successful TB control programme, however gains made in the past are being jeopardized by the “National Health Systems Reform”.

Also in 2002 the budget was managed at a central level covered all inputs in TB control in the country. This changed in 2003 when a new health insurance system was introduced. As part of this system budget and clinical care including TB diagnosis and treatment are allocated to provincial and district hospitals on a basis of fixed per capita rate. There has been no data at all to show how much of these budgets are going to the diagnosis and treatment of TB.

This doesn’t surprise me at all. The government at this time is more worried about their fight against each other on who will lead the country. Why should they care about helping sick people who might have a disease that can be fully treated if diagnosed and treated properly?

I have searched about what Thailand is currently doing to fight TB, this is what I found.

A new study reveals a striking lack of social and political commitment to control tuberculosis, a leading cause of death in Thailand.

According to the study, released by Mahidol University (one of Thailand’s top universities) and the Open Society Institute, there is little understanding of how TB is spread and that it can be cured. Many patients do not seek treatment because of social stigma, lack of information, and prohibitive costs. Because of these factors, some patients fail to complete treatment, leading to an increased threat of drug-resistant TB and extremely drug-resistant TB.

This went on and on. Over the last few years Thai universities and medical observers have all stated the same thing. “Not enough if being done by the government in awareness, diagnosis and treatment.”
Hello ministers, wake up and read these reports that Thai alumni have written, take heed and do something about it. Stop the cat fighting and get on with helping your country and its lovely people.

This is a link to the Health and Development Networks to a hospital trying to make a difference in the north of Thailand; I praise these guys with the effort they are making in helping not so well off people with TB.

At times I would like to kick ministers in their butts and make them wake up and see reality, see how the majority of their people are living in Thailand.