We were finally able to review all of our data for the March 2018 health trip to Tzalamtun, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. Here’s an overview of what happened:
Our mission for this trip was to bring healthcare through physical examinations, consultations, dental work, and administration of medicine.
As always, none of our work would have been made possible without the help of local teachers and community leaders. All volunteers were transported to the remote village through trucks and gasoline donated by one of the teachers of the local school. Each round trip was about two hours. Other teachers from the elementary school helped to organize the flow of the project, and also found volunteers from the local high school who helped to sterilize and organize materials. Members of IMPRA (Instituto Mixto Privado Ricardo Arjona), another nearby high school, aided as translators of the Q’eqchi language for those of us that cannot speak it, which is most of us! Additional volunteers included Registered Nurses who also served as translators, but also took vitals and helped with patient flow. Finally, and most incredibly of all, the parents of the local students raised funds, which provided a lunch for all volunteers for the three days of the campaign.
The medical workup included nutrition consults, tests for parasites from stool and urine samples, physical examinations, and consults. Dental workup included examinations, and either extractions and/or fillings for affected teeth.
And finally, the most telling part of all, EPIDEMIOLOGY. At the current time, all we have been able to count comes from Medical Charts. At the end of the health mission, most of the Dental Records were lost, but efforts are being made to find them. From the medical data, here is what we found.
Patient total : 430 persons
Nutrion-Related diagnoses: 33%
Including: malnutrition, Protein-caloric malnutrition, underweight, diabetes, obesity, overweight, anorexia, avitaminosis, and dehydration.
Parasites: 27.4%
Including: ascaris lumbricoides, uncinaria, trichuris trichuria, entoamoeba coli, strongyloides, endolimax nana, giardia lamblia, retortamonas, chilomastix, mesnilii, tricomonas, and Charcot-Leyden crystals.
GI tract diagnoses: 18.4%
Including: peptic disease, gastritis, gastric ulcers, diarrhea, intestinal amoebas, nausea, irritable colon syndrome, viral gastroenteritis, abdominal pain, and dysentery.
Infections and other diagnoses: 15.8%
Including: fever, healthy patient, otalgia, viral infection, bacterial infection, cerumen plug, varicella, eye trauma, epistaxis, vision problems, ear infection, common cold, hernia, Chagas, lipoma, lower extremity ulcer, senescence.
Musculoskeletal diagnoses: 10.7%
Including: myalgia, muscular spasms, prosthetic pain, back pain, muscular tear, athralgia, lower extremity pain, and gynovial cyst.
Urinary Tract Diagnoses: 10.7%
Including: urinary tract infection, and dysuria.
Neurological diagnoses: 8.8%
Including: cephalea, dizziness, syncope, Bell’s palsy, neuropathy, blurry vision, convulsions, developmental delay, dysgeusia, and weakness.
Skin-related diagnoses : 6%
Inlcuding: dermatitis, mycosis, sarcoptosis, impetigo, pruritus, vitiligo, and idiopathic infection.
Respiratory Tract Diagnoses: 4.4%
Including: upper respiratory infection, lower respiratory infection, acute respiratory infection, pneumonia, COPD, left roncus, pharingoamigdalitis, bronchospasm, and bronchitis.
Ob/Gyn Diagnoses: 4.2%
Including: dysmenorrhea, oligomenorrhea, pregnant, cysts, menopause.
Circulatory and Cardiovascular Diagnoses: 3.2%
Including: anemia, hypertension, tachycardia, heart murmur, aortic aneurysm, varices, and deep vein thrombosis.
Although these were just quick facts, we expect to publish a complete scientific report here on our website. Once again, a million thank-you’s to all our volunteers, directly from our family, Professor Edin from Tzalamtum Elementary, parents at the school, students from USAC, and the vice mayor of the town who found us all lodging and dinner for the three nights of the campaign.
We hope that this information brings awareness to the needs of the population, and helps us grow as an organization for better and more specialized care.
To all who donated to make this campaign possible, either with time, or monetarily in the United States, WE LOVE YOU AND THANK YOU!
Miguel Vargas Team
our dental clinic where 12 dentists did extractions and fillings
some of the high school students ran the sterilization station
the triage area as patients came in we were able to take vitals and coordinate patient flow to the different areas with the help of these nursing students.
more than 800+ people were able to come in and receive health care
this time, with the help of students and professionals from USAC, we provided nutrition consults, full lab work for patients, medical consults, as well as medicine.
patients were weighed and measured and given nutritional advice as to their daily habits and food intake.
young girl waits to be seen by a doctor with her little brother
kids waiting outside the dental clinics for their parents with one of our board members, ileana.
some of the students' parents who helped organize the patients
we were able to have a full pharmacy because of the donations received. these pharmacists who volunteered their time and skills, kept an inventory and gave prescriptions to the patients, free of cost.
in the school's kitchen, students' parents worked all morning cooking for 60+ people. they gathered funds among them and gave us lunch for three days. it was their way to say thank you.
