Their dress is bright and colourful. The families are much more involved in looking after their relatives as there are fewer nurses. Relatives would cook meals and fetch medication. The mothers would stay with their young children, sleeping in the same bed on the ward. After the daily ward rounds we saw outpatients with anything from fractures and snakebites, to malnutrition and aching joints.
Falciparum malaria is common and there was the odd case of cerebral malaria.
What was striking was the range of people affected - children, young mothers, soldiers, older men and women. In the West we are used to it predominantly affecting a few well-defined groups. A large proportion of the work is paediatrics, as well as obstetrics and gynaecology, general medicine and some minor surgery. A big part is infectious diseases. It seemed unbelievable that children were still dying simply from not having an adequate diet.