Healthy living

Not long ago, furious about sanctions that had been imposed by the European Union on Ministers and other leaders of the DRC, the Congo announced that it would retaliate. They singled out Belgium as likely to be the first such country to be sanctioned.

He joked about it.

“From now on all those wishing to come to the DRC from Belgium for medical treatment will be turned away.”

The speaker has been living in the Congo for 35 years and survived endless hardships and relentless political turmoil with great stoicism. But he’s got a right to comment on the health system with some authority.

After a colonoscopy at the top clinic in Kinshasa he was rushed to intensive care as there were signs that his colon might have been punctured. They were scared and so was he, but luckily he survived, though being dumped in intensive care with no food or drink for more than a day, and with no information, was no fun.

Two years before he had noticed a nasty sore developing around his stomach, and spreading fast. He saw a doctor at a local hospital, who recommended that he should be evacuated to Paris where the preliminary diagnosis of the Congolese was confirmed. The sore, now the size of a dinner plate, was caused by flesh-eating bacteria.

It took more than two months in the Paris hospital for the condition to be cured and his body repaired with skin grafts, and he is now back to normal.

So life here has its risks . . .

But nothing can compare with the shock we had when we were meeting with a newly introduced service of health inspectors. These are auditors of the health system (not the ones that check restaurants etc.) The audits include financial management but their role is much wider. Among other things, they check pharmacies for fake medicines.

“You see,” said the new manager, “we’ve only been in business for two weeks, but look what we have uncovered already.”

A large box was brought out, full of confiscated products. And out of this he produced a saline drip bag in which there was a substantial greenish/purplish floater. By substantial I mean the size of a plum. I still shudder when I think of it. It made me think of the famous snail in the bottle case which established a manufacturer's liability to its customers in the 1930s.

What so bad is that it’s the poor who are so-called treated by these appalling products. At least they've now got someone on their side. And we are going to help the inspectors do their job better.