Friday, August 31, 2007

Pangkalan Jihing

We are now in a village called Pangkalan Jihing. Like Nek Doyan, this place is also dominated by logging, and the logging income has made many people here rich. Even though the village is fairly remote many of the houses here are ornate and new. WE are staying with the kepala dusun (head of subvillage) who is a very stern man and suspicious of our activities. This man is a logging boss, and it shows – his house is huge and beautiful, and includes an indoor shower and toilet – whoohoo!

Today one of my team members came down with chicken pox. Funny: I was expecting to encounter all sorts of strange diseases here in the Asian tropics but all I've seen are chicken pox, head colds, and of course the unavoidable diarrhea. This incident, plus some smaller health problems in the team (impacted wisdom teeth, bee stings, rashes) make me eager to enroll in further first aid training when I get back to the US, and perhaps to bring a medical reference to the field with me as well. Then I would know, for example, how contagious chicken pox is, and how best to treat unknown rashes.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

In answer to your question about chicken pox, it is highly contagious. Transmission rates to non-immune individuals are >90% and occur primarily via respiratory transmission (also contact with secretions from lesions). People who get chicken pox become contagious BEFORE the rash appears and remain so until the rash fully crusts over.

Glad you're interested in such things!