Reasons why I want to become a doctor

 

   I was born in the Dominican Republic. It was very difficult when I came to this world because I had a last minute change and came out of the womb feet first. I almost died and my mom almost did also but luckily I am here today. The doctors that treated me did not charge my family any money because they did their work voluntary.

Lidia at 6 months old

When I was little and my mom told me this story I always thought it was fascinating and thought that one day I wanted to be like those doctors and cure people.










When I was older I had to go to the hospital once again and it was not what I expected. They were people severely injured that had been waiting for hours. It was not a very sanitary place. That was when another idea came to mind and my plans were to hopefully become a doctor and be able to build a small clinic.


   

 I ended up coming to the United States my dreams are still the same, I still would like to become a doctor. They just a little bit different. I hope one day I get to work for MSF because it's doing something that I like which is helping those in need the only way I can picture myself doing it. I think it is wonderful to not only help people but also to cure them.

Tubercolosis

  MSF  Treatment of Tuberculosis

What is TB?
 Tuberculosis is caused by a bacterium that spreads through the air, through cough or sneeze. It mainly affects the lungs and bones and also the nervous system. If other people have other diseases like HIV the tuberculosis virus can become even more active.






More information on tuberculosis

 Symptoms of TB
- Persistent cough
- Fever
- Weight loss
- Chest pain
- Breathlessness
TB leads to the cause of death
with people with HIV






 Diagnosis for TB
   - Smear microscopy, the microscope examination of sputum or lung fluid, for the tuberculosis bacilli
   - Testing is only accurate half of the time and even less accurate if the patient has HIV.
   - MSF is continuing to try to find more appropriate accurate testings for TB.

Treating TB 

Lidia Garcia

Meningitis

"MSF vaccinated 75,100 people against meningitis in response to outbreaks in 2014"

Vast Majority of meningitis occur in Africa

Causes of Meningitis

Meningitis is highly contagious. People often carry the disease without knowing and no symptoms are shown. The decease is spread by coughing and sneezing. Bad living conditions and overcrowding living and conditions increase the rise of spreading the disease. Detailed Causes of Meningitis

 Symptoms
 
      - Fever
      - Nausea
      - Vomiting
      - Photophobia
      - Stiffness in neck
       These disease is most likely to affect young
       children and babies













                                                Vaccinating against Meningitis Epidemics

                           


            Treating Meningitis
             Antibiotics that can treat infection
                - Penicillin
                - Ampicillin
                - Chloramphenicol
             

 Massive vaccinations conducted by MSF help prevent the spread of the virus. MSF have     prevented 70% of cases of meningitis in Africa.





Lidia Garcia

HIV/AIDS treatment by MSF

MSF Treating HIV/AIDS

     There are 35 million people living with HIV/AIDS majority of them are located in Africa.

Causes of HIV: HIV is a sexually
 transmitted disease and can be
 passed on to babies by birth.



















Symptoms of HIV

People show symptoms of HIV differently. Some will start showing symptoms after a month or so of being infected by the virus. Others would not get any symptoms for years.

MSF Diagnosing HIV 

HIV testing can be very rapid, but the people that are infected in parts of Africa are not aware of the disease which makes it hard for the diagnosing process.


Treating HIV
 Treatments now for HIV are way more successful then what they used to be before. A combination of drugs (ARVs) help fight the virus. ARVs allow people to have a longer life. Also ARVs help patients have a healthier life without their immune system shutting down.


More information on ARVs click here.


At the end of 2014, MSF had 229,900 HIV patients registered under our care.


Lidia Garcia

MSF Regarding Mental Health

MSF Mental Health

Ebola survivors that suffered from mental health talking with counselors

      MSF helps with epidemics, natural disasters, and many different things that can affect people's mental health. MSF provide different counselors along with psychologists or psychiatrist that help with the mental medical help of thousands of people.








One in 4 people in the world will suffer from mental health, living conditions has a lot do with it also







 In 2014 MSF stuff helped 218,400

    Individual and group counseling sessions for mental health. People in these places need mental health because of many reasons. The loss of family members due to natural disasters, trauma of sexual violence, being caught up in a war.

More information of ebola relationship with mental health

Lidia Garcia

Malaria

Malaria

Malaria is a deadly mosquito disease. It's transmitted from person to person.  Four main species of malaria parasite:
                   1) Plasmodium Falciparum
                   2) Plasmodium Malariae
                   3) Plasmodium Vivax
                   4) Plasmodium Ovale
             

Symptoms of Malaria
 
 The symptoms occur 1 to 2 weeks after the infection. Pain, headaches, joint pain, fever, sweating, vomiting, coma. If malaria goes untreated, it can quickly cause death.
     












Diagnosing Malaria

Looking for parasites are looked under the microscope. But tests are not always available for everyone in certain places. Sometimes people tend to do diagnosis based on the symptoms but with so many diseases they are not very accurate. For more information regarding diagnosis : Health-line Malaria Diagnosis

 Treating Malaria

  Treatment of malaria is done through "ACTs"
           "For plasmodium falciparum use of two or more drugs with different modes of action in combination is now recommended to provide adequate cure rate and delay development of resistance.  Currently artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) is recommended for the treatment of malaria." Many places where MSF work ACT is available. Global need for malaria treatment is 300 to 500 million of treatment courses per year, but in 2006 only 90 million treatment courses accused. Health- Line Treatment for Malaria



Lidia Garcia