Illnesses Encountered During Medical Volunteering in Takeo Province, Cambodia.

Background and Objectives: Medical volunteering seeks to meet the clinical needs of underserved areas, but has been criticized for difficulties in addressing local health issues and resultant lack of sustainability. Our team has visited rural Cambodia annually since 2012. This study reports the illnesses encountered during the recent mission and share our experiences to improve the efficiency of medical volunteering. Materials and Methods: Infrastructure, such as public electricity or water, was unavailable, hence most medical care and records were hand-performed. We categorized (1) primary diagnoses (chief complaints) by duration of symptoms, and (2) primary and secondary diagnoses (illnesses that were not related to the chief complaint) by severity of illness since patients commonly reported multiple symptoms. Blood pressure and anthropometric values were also checked and analyzed. Results: We encountered 317 adult and 141 pediatric patients. Among adults, 61.3% had persistent chronic (>6 month) symptoms of their chief complaints. The commonest diagnoses of chronic symptoms were musculoarthritis (31.5%) and gastroesophageal reflux disease and/or gastritis (21.7%). Hypertension and/or cardiac problems were relatively common among males (13.6%). The most common diagnosis among the severest cases (specialized or intensive care recommended) was cardiac problems (14.8%), often with abnormalities in sonography or electrocardiogram. For children, the overwhelming majority of diagnoses were related to acute symptoms and low severity, and approximately half were cases of the common cold. Commonly prescribed drugs were antacids or mucosal protectors (31.3%), Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) or other painkillers (27.6%), and antiparasites (17.7%) in adults, and NSAIDs (44.7%) and antiparasites (23.2%) in children. Among adults, 32.7% were diagnosed with hypertension, and body mass index (p = 0.003) and age (p < 0.001) were both correlated with hypertension and its grade. Conclusion: Our study offers practical help to volunteer health workers planning to visit Southeast Asia.

Common Illnesses in Tropical Asia and Significance of Medical Volunteering.

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 <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.