Helping African Children Affected by Disease
There is a deadly disease that has greatly influenced the poverty stricken country of Ethiopia. The disease is called Noma. This disease only attacks the face and basically eats the flesh off of the face. It acts similar to skin infected with gangrene. In the later stages of the disease, the victims are unable to talk or eat. Noma also leaves the victims severely disfigured which makes it hard to fit in with the normal society.
The mortality rate for people infected with Noma is 90%. The problem with the disease is that the only treatment available includes surgery and antibiotics. Most people are so poor that they cannot afford to get treatment, so they end up dying from the infection. The country has become infected with so many different diseases. It is estimated that 10% of all children living in Ethiopia will not even live long enough to see their first birthday.
Mr. Le Roux Fourie is a plastic surgeon that performs cosmetic surgery in Leeds. He gathered up a group of surgeons that agreed to take a trip to Ethiopia to perform surgeries on the infected people. The first trip lasted 10 days and they were able to help 44 different infected people. Many people needed 2 surgeries. the first one was to remove the infected skin, and the second surgery was to reconstruct the face. They made a great effort to help as many people as they could. They decide to organize more trips. The first year they started the different teams made three separate trips to Ethiopia. these surgeons took a lot of time out of their lives to help these people. Hopefully in the future they can recruit more surgeons that will be willing to donate their time to help the less fortunate in Ethiopia. For more information on how Mr Fourie helped this patients please visit www.lerouxfourie.co.uk