African American History:
Healthcard - Three Who Made A Difference
By William C Campbell
February 18, 2001
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is an African-American series but I have been
asked to say something about a particular experience that involved Africans
& Americans – and the subject of health.
I want to do that
by mentioning three people I got to know in that connection.
First, an American
doctor – a member of a New Jersey
pharmaceutical company. He was an Asian-American, from Pakistan, but he had
been a physician in Africa and cared deeply about its people. His name was Mohammed Aziz. The company had a new drug that was
promising for the prevention of a particular form of blindness; and when the
new drug was ready to go from the lab to the clinic, Dr. Aziz went to Africa
and arranged and the first tests in people. When it worked even better than expected, he was perhaps the first, and
certainly the most persistent to argue that the drug should be given free to
all who needed it. That was a very
complex issue. Fortunately Mohammed
Aziz was present at the press conference in Washington when it was announced
that the drug would indeed be given away. That was the last time I saw him, because he died soon afterwards
-- before he could see the success of the program that he had done so much to
promote.
Second an African
… a Camerounian … Dr Ibrahim Samba. He
is a living definition of the word charisma. He was a successful surgeon .. but of such brilliance and of such
persuasive personality that he was put in charge of a vast program in West
Africa, aimed at controlling that same form of blindness for which the new drug
had been developed. Dr. Samba complains
of Africa's problems with tribalism – but he is where he is because his
personality and his work transcend the boundaries of tribal villages or great towns
or national borders. He has a bunch of
cars with the logo of his organization on the doors of the cars -- and I can
tell you from experience that when you travel in a car with that logo, you have
very little trouble at military checkpoints and border crossings. He says that those cars even cross borders
between countries that are at war! I
believe him! The vast international
program that he runs is funded by foreign governments and the World Bank -- but it is successful because he gets all
kinds of people to work together. The last time I met him, we were having dinner somewhere near
Oaugadougou, in a restaurant run by African nuns. There were two menus on each table – one for the courses we were
to eat, and one for the hymns we were to sing. And Ibrahim Samba sang out those hymns with loud and cheerful
voice.
Finally, a young
African physician, Dr. Mamadou Bah. Some of you may have heard me mention him
before. He was from Mali, but I met him
in Togo, where he was bringing that new drug to people in remote villages far
out in the savannah. One day he found
that the budget didn't have enough money to keep the vehicles and the
paramedics in the field for an extra few days. He sent an urgent message back to
headquarters, asking for permission to keep going, and saying the money should,
if necessary, come out of his salary. Fortunately the official funds came through -- but I never forgot the
matter-of-fact way Dr. Bah made that offer.
So here are three
who cared. And an American
pharmaceutical company and an international agency – one commercial, one
non-commercial. But they did good and they did well. In the matter of health in the developing
world, there is plenty of room for gloom – but there are some bright spots.
© 2001 .
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