Titus Dzongodza meets with a young patient and her mom at the newly established pediatric otolaryngology clinic at Harare Children's Hospital in Zimbabwe. Peter Koltai. Global Health October 19, Titus Dzongodza, MD, was at the end of a long work day, throwing on his jacket to go home, when an 8-year-old girl gasping for breath walked through the doors of the new pediatric otolaryngology clinic at Harare Children's Hospital in Zimbabwe. It was springof , a year after the opening of the pediatric otolaryngology clinic, which treats disorders of the ear, nose and throat.
After two years of planning, building, fundraising, training staff and scrounging for medical equipment, the new clinic opened its doors in March Within its first year, thousands of new patients were making daylong trips by bus to get treatment for neglected conditions. It was only the second such clinic in Africa. The first was in neighboring South Africa. In a country of 14 million people, there are only eight otolaryngologists, also known as ear, nose and throat doctors. Many consider the subspecialty of pediatric ENT unnecessary because of Zimbabwe's many other unmet health care needs.
Chidziva knew firsthand the effects of malnutrition, poor medical care and uncontrolled viruses on his pediatric ENT patients. He also knew these problems reached far beyond Zimbabwe into other parts of Africa and the developing world.
Harare Central Hospital, in the country's capital, comprises the children's hospital and an adult hospital, maternity hospital and psychiatric hospital. Conditions are poor. Prior to the opening of the new clinic, Chidziva's pediatric ENT patients received care at the adult hospital.
They still undergo surgeries there. When Koltai first traveled to Zimbabwe in , he stayed in the background, listening and learning about the problems he and Chidziva's staff were going to try to fix. Naboth Matinhira. There were no fiber-optic capabilities - that is, medical equipment used for internal examination of the body - and no record-keeping for patients.
