Common illnesses in tropical Asia and significance of medical volunteering

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>This study was conducted to provide practical information for actual preparation of medical volunteering in tropical Asia, mainly the distribution of common illnesses encountered during mission. From 2012 to 2017, we visited two rural areas of Eastern Cambodia for medical volunteering missions, Cham Lak and Khsoem. Neither area has electricity or public water. We classified the common cases encountered during missions into six groups (upper respiratory infection, gastroenteritis, vaginitis and/or cystitis, dermatitis, work-related pain and parasite prevention) and assessed the distribution. In Cham Lak and Khsoem, 558 and 371 people were treated, respectively. The most commonly encountered cases in children under age of 18 were upper respiratory infection, followed by parasite control and dermatitis, in both areas. There was no significant difference in distribution between the two areas. For adults, the most common illnesses in Cham Lak area were vaginitis and/or cystitis, followed by gastroenteritis and work-related pain. In Khsoem area, the common illnesses were work-related pain followed by gastroenteritis, and upper respiratory infection. The distribution between the two areas differed significantly (p &lt;0.001). The difference might be due to the water source and main crops of agriculture. Successful preparation of a medical volunteering needs deep understanding of the destination community.</jats:p>

Illnesses Encountered during Medical Volunteering in Takeo Province, Cambodia

“…Between 1975 and 1979, approximately two-million Cambodians were killed during the Khmer Rouge regime, and a significant number of health care providers also died [8,9]. The physician density is 0.17 per 100,000 people, which is in the lowest quartile among the world's countries [6]. According to a World Health Organization report, the median age of the entire population is 24 years, and the population aged over 60 years is only 8%.…”

“…Observations and data were recorded by hand in medical charts that had been developed based on our previous experiences (Supplement Figure S2). The medicine list used as a reference is provided in a supplemental table in our previous article [6]. We prepared a portable blood pressure monitor, echocardiogram, and ultrasound because cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in Cambodia.…”

“…Rovers et al [7] suggested that volunteering can also have a research component that provides locally relevant results and, based on this idea, our team published a previous report of our experiences [6]. In February 2019, we also went on a mission to a rural area in Cambodia, which was a new destination.…”

“…A small medical volunteering team in Korea, "Near to Sky", was organized by the authors of this study. Our team has provided short-term medical services to Cambodia's rural areas once a year from 2012 to 2019 and treated 300 to 600 patients each year [6]. We suffered from a lack of practical literature for reference during the early years of our service.…”

“…Many existing studies had a semantic perspective. Most of these studies were based on experiences in Africa or Latin America, and the literature on tropical Asia was even scarcer [4,6].…”