Dr. Watabe's Perspective: A Day in Mong Cai

We arrive at the clinic at 730 and a huge crowd of patients are waiting. The trainees came in early and set up each station perfectly and started screening the moment we arrived. A large group of patients came from Vinh Trung Island and Vinh Thuu Island; these islands two hours away by boat. There is quite a bit of chaos and competition among patient who are very anxious to be screened. The trainees sense the urgency as they can hear the crowd outside. The high VIA positivity rate and many cryotherapy treatments limit our speed, yet we screen 200 patients this morning alone. The patients have no shame here. They want to be screened and will walk into the station while the previous patient is getting dressed and casually undress and hop into the table without hesitation.  We had to ask them to wait a second so we can wipe down the table. It was taking too long to translate so I had to use a sharpie and a paper to create point to + and – , and draw pictures of positives for the trainees. Around 10 am, a 22 year old girl receiving cryotherapy started to look pale. The trainee taking care of her offered to stop her treatment to give her a moment to rest. The patient wanted to continue and the trainee who was observing brought her a cup of green tea with sugar. The patient finished the cryo with no problem after that. These ladies know how to work efficiently and compassionately. The afternoon was intense with patients lining up for cryotherapy (we had so many positives). We screened over 300 patients in just one day! Our heads were spinning and our supplies running low, but we made it. The trainees and patients are real superstars!