Peru Health Outreach Project: Day 8

June 11, 2012

Today we were in the town of Coya. We saw 146 patients, mostly adults. Common problems that we saw were back and leg pain. Today, I was in intake, which means that I recorded the patient’s names, ages, language spoken, chief complaint, community in which they live, and several questions related to their access to care. Based on my unofficial observations of their sources of care, nearly every patient said that they used home remedies, specifically herbs, as well as clinics staffed with doctors. Most of the patients that I spoke with had recently received care from a clinic. When asked which they used more- home remedies or clinics- their responses were mixed, but overall I believe that more people reported using clinics than home remedies. It will be interesting to compare these results with the data gathered in the more rural villages.

Another thing that I found interesting was that many, many people did not know how old they were. A few people knew that they were in their 80s, but had no idea what their actual age was. In addition to these ‘viejos,’ there were adults of all ages 50+ who reported their age as a year to several years different from what their birthdate on the official ID that they handed me suggested (copying their names from their ID is easier than having them spell it, as they often say their hard-to-spell names very quickly). I reflected with a friend as to why this was the case. Everyone in the U.S. knows exactly how old they are, whereas I found person after person here who said that they were 60 when their ID suggested that they were 62. My tripmate suggested that one’s birthdate is needed for everything in the U.S. and that we’re asked for it all of the time. In Peru, life is different. If people didn’t have any source of identification, we still saw them today—something very unlikely to happen in the U.S.

This week we have 3 pediatricians, 2 adult doctors, and 1 infectious disease specialist. They busily saw patients all day, while the pharmacy passed out medications including the anti-parasitic drug albendazole. Elsewhere, the glasses team tested patients’ eyes and handed out glasses. At the end of the day, a game of (American) football took shape in the large open area in front of where we were set up. When it was time for us to head to the bus, no one on the PHOP team wanted to leave.