This blog entry is written from a hospital room, where I have been incarcerated for not having taken the yellow fever vaccine before departing on my trip to Africa. On my arrival at the airport, I was just congratulating myself for being at the head of the immigration queue and being able to get home early when the immigration officer saw the word Kenya listed on my list of countries recently visited and his eyebrows shot skyward. I was escorted to his supervisor and then to the attending airport doctor who gravely informed me that in the absence of documentation of the administration of the yellow fever vaccine to me, he had no alternative but to commend me to solitary confinement in quarantine to a mosquito free room at a hospital for a period of five days. I attempted to convince him that a) I was unaware of the regulation (my travel agent had failed to inform me) b) I had only transited through Kenya for a day c) I had stayed in a good hotel in Nairobi and not ventured out of the city, or anywhere near a jungle d) I had not so much as seen a single mosquito all the time I was there e) that I was a physician myself and would happily take all precautions and present myself to a physician of his recommendation daily. However, all my protestations, expostulations, pleas and appeals to his sentiments as a professional colleague fell on deaf ears. Eventually I decided to stay calm and accept the inevitable, and after a prolonged wait at the airport, was transported in a decrepit and mosquito ridden ambulance to the hospital where I waited another 2 hours in another liberally mosquito-filled waiting room to be examined. The point of incarcerating me in a mosquito-safe room seemed meaningless at this stage. When there are major lethal public health issues in our own country such as dengue hemorrhagic fever, it seems unfortunate that such a disproportionate amount of time, energy and
expense be spent on something that is of questionable impact, especially when the effort is so half-hearted that it ends up being meaningless.
Inspiring trip to Africa – met passionate, energetic and committed people and learned much about a part of the world I’d never been to. http://teleradiologic.blogspot.in/2012/09/africa-diary-i.html