A feverish Cry...

Our compound has a lovely couple who care for the area and maintain safety. They are always followed by a little boy with the quirkiest voice, Subash their grandson. Subash has become the source of much laughs in our household and makes his presence known to us by his cries and by banging on our door.

One morning, our bathroom floor got flooded as we did our wash - we checked outside and we found that someone, with little wee hands, had used our water pipe to hide rocks and even a bottle of gentian violet. Subash's mischievous face was priceless as he realized he got caught.

Subash is a perfect example of why I'm here... He has had recurrent respiratory infections, fever, and diarrhea in the last few months. His grandmother brings him to the private clinic and returns with yet another set of meds.

I'm presently writing my research paper - trying to highlight the main findings that we obtained from our 26 interviews. It is clear that private health providers don't follow best practices... they give unecessary medications, they don't assess well, they offer services that they are not trained for... but then again, they are there... The need is great, and some do respond well, mostly considering their limited education.

The final goal is to better understand how private providers treat children under 5... It's interesting since we've touched upon some of the factors that influence their practice: marketing forces, financial status of patients, beliefs about meds, etc... I'm finding it hard because I am always second-guessing my conclusions - hoping I am being faithful to the data.

This paper is one tiny step forward towards figuring out how NFHP and the government can engage the private sector for improving child health outcomes. Interesting to think that maybe, one day, this will help a little Subash...