Posted on Dec 20, 2023
A rare and neglected flesh-eating disease finally gets some attention
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https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/12/20/ [login to see] /rare-and-neglected-flesh-eating-disease-noma-finally-gets-who-attention
It started out as malaria – or at least that's what her grandparents thought. But there was another devious infection lurking beneath the surface of her skin and inside her mouth.
Mulikat Okanlawon was a child, only 6 or 7 years old, when she contracted noma – a rare gangrenous infection that ate away at the flesh and bone in her face.
Compared to others who get noma, Mulikat was lucky. It almost always leads to death.
Those who survive are left with substantial facial disfiguration that requires repeated reconstructive plastic surgery to repair. That's why some global health workers call noma the "face of poverty."
It started out as malaria – or at least that's what her grandparents thought. But there was another devious infection lurking beneath the surface of her skin and inside her mouth.
Mulikat Okanlawon was a child, only 6 or 7 years old, when she contracted noma – a rare gangrenous infection that ate away at the flesh and bone in her face.
Compared to others who get noma, Mulikat was lucky. It almost always leads to death.
Those who survive are left with substantial facial disfiguration that requires repeated reconstructive plastic surgery to repair. That's why some global health workers call noma the "face of poverty."
A rare and neglected flesh-eating disease finally gets some attention
Posted from npr.org
Medical
Health
Posted 4 mo ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."At a noma hospital, survivors hope for a better life
While Sherlock, Srour, and others walk the path towards noma elimination, Doctors Without Borders continues to care for survivors in places like the Sokoto Noma Hospital, where Mulikat received her follow-up treatment and reconstructive surgeries.
For Mulikat, all those treatments and surgeries gave her a new lease on life. "After the treatment I began to admire myself and then went back to school," she says. "I'm really happy because where I was before is not where I am now."
She now works in the hospital as a health promoter: talking to other survivors who face the same difficult road to recovery as she did, guiding them through the difficulties of dealing with multiple surgeries and stigma from their community.
"I know that when there is life there is hope," says Mulikat. "The patients in the hospital see me, I talk to them and share my life experiences. Just by hearing from me they have hope."
..."At a noma hospital, survivors hope for a better life
While Sherlock, Srour, and others walk the path towards noma elimination, Doctors Without Borders continues to care for survivors in places like the Sokoto Noma Hospital, where Mulikat received her follow-up treatment and reconstructive surgeries.
For Mulikat, all those treatments and surgeries gave her a new lease on life. "After the treatment I began to admire myself and then went back to school," she says. "I'm really happy because where I was before is not where I am now."
She now works in the hospital as a health promoter: talking to other survivors who face the same difficult road to recovery as she did, guiding them through the difficulties of dealing with multiple surgeries and stigma from their community.
"I know that when there is life there is hope," says Mulikat. "The patients in the hospital see me, I talk to them and share my life experiences. Just by hearing from me they have hope."
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."At a noma hospital, survivors hope for a better life
While Sherlock, Srour, and others walk the path towards noma elimination, Doctors Without Borders continues to care for survivors in places like the Sokoto Noma Hospital, where Mulikat received her follow-up treatment and reconstructive surgeries.
For Mulikat, all those treatments and surgeries gave her a new lease on life. "After the treatment I began to admire myself and then went back to school," she says. "I'm really happy because where I was before is not where I am now."
She now works in the hospital as a health promoter: talking to other survivors who face the same difficult road to recovery as she did, guiding them through the difficulties of dealing with multiple surgeries and stigma from their community.
"I know that when there is life there is hope," says Mulikat. "The patients in the hospital see me, I talk to them and share my life experiences. Just by hearing from me they have hope."
..."At a noma hospital, survivors hope for a better life
While Sherlock, Srour, and others walk the path towards noma elimination, Doctors Without Borders continues to care for survivors in places like the Sokoto Noma Hospital, where Mulikat received her follow-up treatment and reconstructive surgeries.
For Mulikat, all those treatments and surgeries gave her a new lease on life. "After the treatment I began to admire myself and then went back to school," she says. "I'm really happy because where I was before is not where I am now."
She now works in the hospital as a health promoter: talking to other survivors who face the same difficult road to recovery as she did, guiding them through the difficulties of dealing with multiple surgeries and stigma from their community.
"I know that when there is life there is hope," says Mulikat. "The patients in the hospital see me, I talk to them and share my life experiences. Just by hearing from me they have hope."
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