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A Caring Doctor and FOW-USA Improve Life for Urostomates in Nepal.
The Friends of Ostomates Worldwide-USA (FOW-USA) recently sent ostomy supplies to Nepal. The board of directors received a report from the surgeon in Nepal who requested the ostomy supplies for his patients. FOW-USA's President Fred Moore met the doctor at an international conference for oncology doctors in Florida. The doctor is a native of Nepal who received his medical training in China and specializes in cancer surgery and research. FOWUSA received permission to print his article since we thought you might want to read about life for ostomates in Nepal.
"Nepal is a small country situated between India and China. The population is about two million with a literacy rate of 37 percent. The country mainly relies on agriculture.
The Nepalese government funds a healthcare system, but the funding can only cover very basic services and there are no medical insurance systems. Patients must pay for all medicine and ostomy equipment themselves. Though communicable diseases are still a major health problem, noncommunicable diseases like cancer are becoming more common and the incidence of cancer has significantly increased in recent years. About fifty thousand patients have been diagnosed with cancer with the most common cancers being bladder, cervix, lungs, gastrointestinal, and genitourinary tract. The unfortunate reality is the disease is discovered at a late stage due to lack of patient education, awareness and proper health screenings and many require urinary diversions. My primary concern has been dealing with the quality of life after urinary diversions with or without adhesive type receptacles.
I work in a government cancer hospital in Bharatpur, which is located approximately 200 kilometers south of the capital of Nepal, Kathmandu. Due to economic backwardness and unavailability of technology in the country, both doctors and patients are placed...