Buprofen

Thankfully to God, I awakened this morning. Although my spirit was eager to return to my work at the PFC center, my body felt otherwise.  After successfully battling jet lag, a sudden cold that accompanied me during my journey across the Atlantic Ocean, and insect bites from unknown flying creatures, I woke up with muscle pain. Determined not to slow down the clinic’s work for today, I quickly raided my suitcase for my beloved package: a first aid kit stuffed with medicines from my local US drug store. After gleefully swallowing some ibuprofen with a sip of prime Kenyan tea, I left with Samantha and Mfon to the clinic.

Upon our arrival, we continued in our supportive efforts to the PFC team. Yet, this time the three of us stayed on-site at the clinic in order to meet up with Dr. Vincent and discuss in detail possible modifications to the Sana program. I’m hopeful that our revisions in areas such as tracking patient follow-up and patient assessment modules will help improve the care of Marurui residents by streamlining and quickening Dr. Vincent’s response to patients.  In between our discussion, we observed him doing what he does best—treating and counseling patients. After examining a 10 month old suffering from a respiratory infection, he asked his nurse, Mary, to fill a liquid prescription for the child. The nurse returned with an ibuprofen bottle. Confused by the presence of this drug, I (in classical medical student fashion) inquired, “Why is this medicine being given?” Dr. Vincent, with a Sana phone in one hand and a prescription pad in the other, informed me, “Oh, this is not buprofen (the clinic’s nickname for ibuprofen). We don’t have enough plastic syrup bottles to give out to everyone. So we often must use old buprofen, aspirin, and acetaminophen bottles for the pouring and distribution of our stock liquid medicines.”

One half of me marveled at the resourcefulness and improvisation of the clinic; the other part of me was appalled by the fact that this clinic, which is working to use advanced mHealth and EMR technology in order  to improve patient care, has to deal with inconsistent access to basic medical supplies such as plastic syrup bottles. The rising cost of drugs is often the culpable factor in drug availability; a factor that especially affects medical facilities like the PFC clinic, which is committed to providing low cost and free medicines to the people that they serve. It was at that moment that feelings of guilt began to pierce my conscience. As I watched the child exit the clinic for the light rain and gray clouds that blocked the normally sunny Kenya sky, I thought of my kit packed with a plethora of cough syrup bottles  that featured medicines of my choice, including my beloved ibuprofen. Such disparities in care should not exist.  My teammates and I look forward to working with the PFC clinic to support their pharmacy efforts by obtaining lower cost supplies and establishing a consistent relationship with suppliers, in particularly pharmaceutical companies in Kenya. 

After returning home from the clinic in the late afternoon, I sailed up the stairs, desiring to take another buprofen in order to relieve the symptoms of pain I had successfully averted this morning. As I sat and stared at the muddy-brown, M & M sized pill that was resting comfortably in the palm of my hand I thought, “What if this medicine was not available to me?”

Want to learn more about medical supply donations? Check out one of our mHealth supporters!