Health

What if I get sick?

© Juan Carlos Tomasi
Ethiopia

You probably haven’t eaten well for weeks.  Hunger, along with the intense stress you are experiencing, will weaken your immune system and make you more susceptible than usual to disease.  The diseases you should be most concerned about are malaria, acute respiratory infections, diarrhoeal diseases, and especially, measles, which can spread very quickly in crowded living conditions. 

Your first contact with healthcare may be through a community health worker who is looking out for people in need of medical attention and spreading the word about the location of clinics.  Or you may see a mobile clinic being set up in your area. If you are seriously sick or injured and need a hospital, clinics can possibly arrange for you to go to a local hospital that can admit patients with more serious conditions, or an aid agency may set up a hospital.   However, it can sometimes take several hours to reach the hospital, often along remote or dangerous roads, and the hospital itself may well be overstretched by the influx of new patients.

 

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