Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Monkole (Fides Service) - Democratic Congo is one of the world’s poorest countries more than half the population living on less than a dollar a day.
To provide health care for poor people in and around Kinshasa in 1991 Opus Dei in collaboration with other institutions opened Monkole Medical Centre.
The Centre has a mother/child care department which takes part in national vaccination campaigns promoted by the government and it also runs programmes of mother/child health formation for village people.
In these years tens of thousands of patients have received treatment at the Centre and many more have benefited from its work of health education.
Every year Monkole Centre admits an average of 1,200 children with serious pathologies. About 40% need intensive care. The Centre has a department for research and prevention of drepanocytose blood disease which affects 2% of Congo’s children.
The hospital is very proud of its intensive care unit where it treats cases of meningitis, cerebral malaria and anaemia.
The number of patients examined is about 40,000 mostly children under five. With regard to medical assistance in schools, a campaign of preventive medical examinations was carried out among 10,000 children in 34 schools. The formation course on hygiene involved 400 teachers in 34 state and private schools . (AP) (15/11/2005 Agenzia Fides; Righe:25; Parole:288)
