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July 21, 2008

malawi.jpg
In this entry: quotes, warm up questions, discussion questions, resources

VIDEO SUMMARY:

In this video report, NewsHour correspondent Fred De Sam Lazaro talks to young American doctors who are developing a pediatric AIDS program in the African country of Malawi.

Although 83,000 children in Malawi have AIDS, there are only two pediatric doctors in the entire public health system. Through a Baylor College of Medicine program funded by a grant from drug company Bristol Myers-Squibb, American doctors receive a stipend and repayment on student loans to help treat poor African children, like those in Malawi, infected with the disease.

The program also aims to help improve working conditions at African hospitals so that native doctors will return to staff them.

The report exposes the limits facing these young doctors who have limited resources to treat their patients and their willingness to sacrifice to treat children who would otherwise not get care.

SELECTED QUOTES:

"I worked at a very high-acuity hospital in New York, Columbia. And if one patient died or two patients died in a week or a month, it would be a big deal. But we come here and during our time on the wards, we might have three or four patients die a day. And coming to terms with that and coming to terms with there being limits to what we can do for kids was shocking and hard." - Dr. Saeed Ahmed

"The principles, the issues that people learning global health and living global heath will bring home will not only be valuable globally, but they're going to be valuable in leading our country in the future." - Dr. Fitzhugh Mullan, George Washington University

"Most of them do it because they feel that AIDS in Africa is the challenge of this generation. This is a very highly idealistic group of young physicians, by and large, and they want to do something very meaningful straight out of their training." - Dr. Mark Kline, Baylor College of Medicine

WARM UP QUESTIONS:

What do you know about the AIDS virus? What does it do and where is affecting people the most?

What types of doctors have you met in person or seen on television? What do you have to do to become a doctor? How do you imagine your life would be like if you were a doctor?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

Why are there so few pediatric doctors and so many AIDS patients in Malawi? Why are there a variety of treatments available in the United States and barely any doctors in Malawi?

Think about what happens when you are sick or need to see a doctor. How do you think your experience is different from Malawi children?

Why do these young doctors choose to work with AIDS patients in Africa while others don't? Do you think you would take a pay cut to work in this environment? Do you think governments or companies have a responsibility to help poor people in Africa? Why or why not?

RESOURCES:

Transcript of this report

Online NewsHour
In Depth Coverage: AIDS in Africa

Online NewsHour Extra:
HIV Tests Become Part of Regular Check-ups

Baylor College of Medicine

CIA World Factbook: Malawi

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