Giant_and_Dwarf-FIN

Giant and Dwarfage look as scrumptious as a chubby baroque angel. But then comes the critical turning point.Mother’s milk and rice water do not contain sufficient iron, vitamins or other basic nutrientsand the children rapidly lose weight, are anaemic, easily fall victim to various infections andtheir psychomotor development slowed. Rickets was commonplace. Sometimes I was couldfeel desperation creep over me when I looked at the unknowing faces of the mothers whosimply nodded to everything I said.”While at least some modicum of medical care had made it into the cities, women andchildren in Guinea’s rural areas were in a much worse situation. Exactly these children fromthe bush were the most ill. “With distended stomachs and stick-like limbs, they offered thetypical image of malnourished children. Only they didn’t suffer from hunger. In the bush therewas always something to eat, some root or a bit of fruit, but they suffered from poor nutritionand improper diet. Their hair was a light shade of rust, as if the colour had been removed,and their faces carried expressions of anger and annoyance... In more advanced stages thechildren had massive swelling issues and violently threw up every bit of food they were given.They were suffering from Kwashiorkor disease, the spectre of which continues to hang overAfrican villages. 194 These villages of poverty and ignorance were fertile ground for all kinds ofsuperstitions and prejudices. These were accompanied by the practices of various shamans.The competition between them was unpleasant... Too often I saw children die as they werebrought to the hospital at the last minute, when it was already too late. The children hadbeen poisoned by shamans, overdosing on homemade remedies; after an injury a child tookso long to ‘heal’ that the broken limb simply transformed into a single sac of pus; childrenwho hadn’t washed anything for half a year simply lay apathetically in rotting, stinking rags,the nails on their fingers, themselves wrapped into their palms, grew into the meat of theirhands through the palms and out again through the backs of their hands...”Such drastic images are frequent in the book by the white doctor. Some involve children,others adult patients and victims from groups of rebels fighting against Portuguesecolonial masteries in neighbouring Guinea-Bissau, who were quickly rushed after beingadmitted to the hospital in Boké to the care of the only doctors around, Dr. Chrappová andher husband. “Now we were witness to the horrors of war that we had only read about in warliterature. People with wild eyes, scattered limbs, half spent and half crazily marching pastus for the third day in a row and we’re coping with shortages of the most basic of materials,personnel and time. Upon arrival of the first batch or twenty four severely injured, we collapsedin between fixing wounds and operations right in the operating theatre... The amputationswere terrible. The limbs were not properly treated and gangrenous. The wounds werehorrendous to look at...”194 Nearly a half century later in 2010, Martin-based epidemiologist Rastislav Maďar spoke about Kwashiorkorin an interview published in the weekly Život. The interview reflects on his experience fromsouthern Tanzania, where he was active with the organization International Humanity (http://www.internationalhumanity.cz/). Characteristically the article was titled Children in Tanzania could be savedwith a box of dry milk. http://zivot.lesk.cas.sk/clanok/8363/dieta-v-tanzanii-by-zachranila-skatulasuseneho-mlieka.html.216