Johns Hopkins Hospital Physicians Help Improve Operative Care...( The magnitud...),Health

The magnitude of health concerns in Africa have left many operating rooms and intensive care units very neglected. These areas can and often do become areas to be feared because of the volume of preventable death and disability which takes place. Johns Hopkins physicians have teamed up with the Society of Critical Care Medicine to assist a continent wide African led effort to improve operative and critical care medicine in Africa.

Baltimore, MD (PRWEB) September 15, 2009 -- The recent tragic death of Michael Jackson has illustrated publicly the dramatic effects of anesthesia medicines in the hands of individuals who lack training and experience in their utilization. In fact, no American would expect to undergo surgery without a skilled anesthesiologist or nurse anesthetist keeping them asleep, pain free, and alive during the experience.

However, surgical and anesthetic care in Africa are two areas within medicine that are largely ignored by the big players in African healthcare. Some entire countries cope without anesthesia physicians and with only a small contingent of nurse anesthetists who have no continuing medical education. More fortunate countries in Africa must manage with just one anesthesiologist per million population. In places like this, surgeons have no choice but to simply appoint the most capable untrained person available to "stand-in" as a surgeon-directed provider of anesthesia. The consequences are often so tragic that the surgery itself can be much more dangerous than the condition that it is meant to correct. Each year throughout Africa's 54 countries, millions of patients are anesthetized with inadequate drugs and equipment and by untrained personnel. This healthcare disparity results in an undocumented number of deaths and disabilities.

However, this September, The Kenya Society of Anesthesiologists is taking the lead toward solving the problem. Th
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