The 2014 Ebola outbreak has already killed more than 4000 people, and the end is not clearly in sight. During this session, we will put Ebola into context of other health problems in Africa and then review the presentations, diagnosis, management, and prevention of this devastating illness. We will also explore ways that we can get involved in battling Ebola, whether near to or far from West Africa.
The Next Generation of students, just like each generation before it, is different and is engaging the world in a new way. In order to effectively attract and retain these students, the church will have to adjust as well. Students no longer want to be a part of a church where they sit, listen and give an offering each weekâstudents of this generation want to know where their money is going and to be a part of the movement. They want to engage in the mission of God in a tangible and real way. Because the entire world is available to them more than ever before, they want to be involved both locally and globally.
ELWA Hospital is a small SIM mission hospital near Monrovia, Liberia. When did we first hear about the impending threat of Ebola? What did we do? How did we prepare? What happened? Come and hear the story of Ebola coming to ELWA.
This session reports on focus groups conducted with 107 domestic victims of sex trafficking in which they discussed the health problems they experienced during trafficking. In addition, the session examines victims' interactions with various types of healthcare providers. The focus groups revealed that nearly all victims experienced physical and mental health problems while being trafficked, including serious communicable and other diseases, injuries resulting from violence, substance abuse, and reproductive health issues. The session summarizes data about the health problems reported by sex trafficking survivors to present a fuller picture of the health consequences that victims suffer. A majority of survivors sought healthcare at some point during the time they were trafficked. The session reports on the contact victims had with health care providers including hospital emergency wards, urgent care clinics, neighborhood clinics, women's clinics, Planned Parenthood clinics, and general practitioners. Many providers were unaware of the fact that they were treating a trafficking victim, and unaware of the force, fraud, and coercion involved in trafficking. The session discusses common physical and mental health symptoms and other warning signs that can assist medical professionals in recognizing possible trafficking victims. It also makes policy and program recommendations for medical care providers to enhance their roles as identifiers of trafficking victims. These recommendations include suggestions for interviewing possible victims and methods for helping victims obtain broader assistance, including criminal justice assistance where warranted. Other recommendations include mandatory training about trafficking in persons for healthcare providers, mandatory posting of the national trafficking hotline phone number and specialized resources to make available to victims.
The medical environment in North Africa's more developed nations is radically different from that of the rest of Africa, where private Christian hospitals with reasonably good surgical services that treat the poor have little or no competition from other hospitals. North Africa also has far more trained and licensed surgeons, and as an outside surgical educator I first had to learn how to work in a medical environment that is prescribed by the local medical community. In North Africa the expatriate surgeon must often compete with licensed local surgeons for surgical cases that residents can learn to do. He or she must be very aware of what the local surgical community considers to be the appropriate way to manage surgical disease. When complications occur the medical-legal environment can be a threat to the residents and to their teachers, especially since we are used to managing our own complications "in house." in Egypt complications are not tracked or discussed as we do in developed countries, and patients with serious complications are usually transferred to another hospital to protect the reputation of the surgeon and the hospital. This provides additional challenges to training surgeons. Working cross-culturally as an international medical educator requires humility, patience, and a strong commitment to learn how cultural and religious differences impact medical practice and the way decisions are made
