Monday, July 30, 2007

Pitfalls and Peculiarities

Traditional medicine is alive and well in this part of Niger. Here are three anecdotes about some of our early encounters with traditional healers and hexers.

Anti-scorpion medication
Some days ago a small, excited crowd gathered outside the gate to the guest house where we’re all staying. We went out to investigate. Usually the sick or injured are taken to the hospital and not brought here but we were asked to look at a young man in the center of the small crowd. As we approached we could see that there was something on his face. A closer look showed a large scorpion. One pincer covered the man’s left eye and the other rested on his right cheek. The stinger - tipped tail waved menacingly. I’ve never seen this problem described in any medical text and we were at a loss as to how we were going to proceed. I’m sure our quandary was apparent to the crowd as well. Suddenly laughter broke out. Our victim opened a small bag a pulled out another scorpion which he effortlessly, and without being stung, passed from hand to hand. It turns out that he is well known in these parts as a “scorpion handler”. His business is selling scorpion protection. For 200 Francs he’ll sell you a small amount of a specially formulated (by him) powder which will protect you from scorpion stings, and I guess let you walk around with a scorpion on your face as well.

Something missing
One of the local gendarmes brought a highly agitated and frightened young man of about 20 to the clinic shortly after we arrived here. The officer’s French, like mine, wasn’t particularly good and the young man spoke only Hausa so we struggled for a while, but finally the story was pieced together. The evening before the young man had encountered an old and apparently rather frightening man on one the dark streets here. Without warning the old man grasped the young man’s hands, uttered something and then disappeared into the gloom. The young fellow was uninjured but frightened. Later, to his horror, he learned that he had been “attacked” by an old man widely reputed to have the power to remove a young man’s testicles with a single touch of the hand. For a price however the testicles would be returned in the same way. My young patient had spent a sleepless night agonizing over his dismal future as a eunuch since he couldn’t afford the price of the ransom. The morning of his visit to the clinic he had “experimented” a bit and found that in fact “things” just wouldn’t work. He became so agitated that his friends summoned the police who brought him for a visit.

Well, I thought, this should be easy. A brief exam disclosed completely normal anatomy – everything was there and nothing had been taken. I put on the mantle of authority, the visiting consultant if you will, and explained to him that I had some experience with these things and that I could assure him that everything was alright. The old man, I continued, was just trying to trick him and steal his money. He shouldn’t give it another thought.

The next morning he was back. “Things” still weren’t working and he appeared morose. Authoritative reassurances were clearly not going to work. Bigger magic was needed. I told him to return in the afternoon and I would have something which would restore the testicles. I walked over to the pharmacy across the street and bought a 50 mg. sildenafil (Viagra) tablet and put it in a small box. When he returned I gave it to him and told him this would make everything right. He never came back for another clinic visit but I saw the gendarme a few days later. He told me that after taking the medication the young fellow had had a rather remarkable experience and now considered himself cured.

A Near Tragedy

This past weekend a 7 day old child was brought to the hospital. His parents reported that he had suddenly begun to vomit blood. He was terribly weak and anemic and required a blood transfusion. Fortunately no further bleeding occurred and he became stable. We began trying to figure out what had caused the bleeding. We have very little if any diagnostic equipment or laboratory here and we doubted that we could make a diagnosis. Fortunately one of our nursing students who speaks the local dialect well came up with the answer. There is a tradition among some of the Fulani tribes of clipping the uvula – the “flipflop” that hangs down from the soft palate in the back of the mouth. It is thought to promote growth and to prevent vomiting. We got a good look into the back of the throat, and sure enough, the uvula had been clipped. The child’s mother and older sister had had the same treatment as well. Fortunately all turned out well, but a tragedy was narrowly averted.

Steve Humphrey
Maine-Soroa, Niger
July 30, 2007

1 comment:

Clyde and Joan Dornbusch said...

We enjoyed reading this blog. It reminded us of some of the Chinese remedies we met with in Singapore. I remember downing "essence of chicken" (a whole chicken reduced to broth) to cure my bronchitis. Of course, there is medicinal value in chicken, and I did eventually recover, though I also took an antibiotic. We think tiger's penis was used to restore one's manhood. Do you expect there is any of that in viagra?