On the mountain

According to Dr. Dennis Clements, all is going well. The weather is warm and the group is slowly adjusting to the change in altitude. The clinic sits at 5,000 feet above sea level, so after transporting everything to the clinic site on Thursday, unpacking and organizing, the group was feeling the effects of the altitude and everyone went to bed at 7 p.m.

The staff at the clinic see a wide variety of patients and conditions. Patients range in age from six months to 72 years old. Dr. Clements reports that many of the clinic visits are what you would expect at an outpatient clinic. Clinic staff are, however, seeing a lot of upper respiratory infections and there seems to be an epidemic of rotavirus infections in the surrounding community. They work to make sure patients suffering from the latter are given sufficient fluids. If patients become dehydrated, they must be admitted to the hospital.

Attempts to send a photo from the mountain have proven unsuccessful. Stay tuned for the next update Sunday evening, technology willing.