From 29 March to 12 April we were on mission at the Consolata Hospital in Ikonda, Tanzania, 2050 metres of altitude in the Ukinga mountains on the border with Malawi.
We reached Ikonda after a two-day journey from the city of Dar Es Salam.
The hospital is a first-class health facility offering qualified care to one of the poorest areas in Tanzania, where a large number of patients from the many surrounding villages flow in.
There are General Medicine, Paediatrics, General Surgery, Orthopaedics, Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Urology Wards. There is an analysis laboratory, Radiology with CT and MRI, operating rooms diversified according to speciality, and the ICU the Intensive Care Unit with 7 multi-purpose stations.
There is a Cardiology clinic where are performed ECGs and echocardiograms, but there are no cardiologists. Despite the warm welcome of Father Marco Turrà, who runs the hospital, and other fathers, both local and Italian, the cardiology operation appeared to be lacking both in instruments and training.
In the hospital arrive many patients with serious heart pathologies similar to those find in western countries: ischemic heart disease, hypertensive heart disease, and also rheumatic heart disease.
Few children were present despite the fact that rheumatic disease is locally endemic. The reason quickly became clear: people were not attending because there was no correspondence of management and therapy.
Ascanio Giannini, our ICU nurse, restored 3 lung ventilators and 4 multi-parameter monitors. He carried out instrumental training at the local NICU and a mini-course on electrocardiography for local doctors and nurses.
Elisabetta Zachara gave a lecture on the main topics of cardiology and discussed some cases illustrating the instrumental and pharmacological needs for clinical cardiology, the standardised procedures that must be ensured through adequate professional training of nursing staff, as well as the urgent need for new pulmonary ventilators, multi-parametric monitors and defibrillators.
We left Tanziana but still remain in constant contact with the head of the hospital for advice and guidance on the ICU and will schedule another mission in December.