By New Life Home Trust | Project Leader
This past month our Nairobi home experienced the full force of a virulent and aggressive outbreak of Rotavirus. Despite the fact that our babies have received immunisations against the virus, the merciless effects of this ubiquitous ‘bug’ hit us hard.
A common and often life-threating form of diarrhoea and vomiting, Rotavirus is responsible for thousands of infant fatalities across the globe. The replacement of lost fluids is of vital importance, either in the form of oral rehydration salts or, in serious cases, through the administration of intravenous fluids.
The outbreak affected nearly 75% of our babies, spreading like wildfire through the home despite our best efforts to isolate the affected children. At its peak, we had ten children on intravenous fluids with the ICU room transformed into a medical ward. We had to seek out extra nurses, volunteers and a doctor in our time of crisis. We also had one previously healthy boy rushed to the ICU in the middle of the night, accompanied by our National Director and one of our nurses.
Having spent a few days in hospital, he is now backing with us in rude health. We are rejoicing because we’re so grateful that the sick children have all made complete and full recoveries! But all of this could not have been accomplished without uninterrupted access to a clean water supply.
This month reminded us of the dire need for clean water in our Nairobi home and precisely why we are raising funds to install a durable water system. While we couldn’t have predicted this outbreak, we can do everything in our power to keep our infants healthy when problems arise.
If we didn’t have access to clean water last month, we wouldn’t have been able to provide vital medical treatment, to offer clean diapers, clothes, and sheets to keep the babies healthy, or to be consistently nourishing our sick infants so that they didn’t become dehydrated. In short, we could not have provided the life-saving care that these infants needed to survive this simple illness.
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