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Ruralite Cafe: Published 09/05/02

By Lynn Hotaling - Associate Editor

Dr. Aldis tells of his work in Africa

Lynn
Just as next week's first anniversary of last year's terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., provides a grim reminder of global politics and policies, last week's visit from former Sylva physician William Aldis provides a different glimpse of the interconnectedness of today's shrinking world.

Just days after Dr. Aldis and his 15-year-old son, Ravi, stopped by The Sylva Herald's Main Street offices, I heard something on the radio about the central African nation of Malawi. Thanks to a brief geography lesson from the good doctor, I knew that Malawi can be found on the map between Zambia and Mozambique, and the famine the newscaster was discussing seemed a little more real when I realized I knew someone in that country.

Aldis Former Sylva physician William Aldis, right, and son Ravi, 15, were in Sylva last week. Aldis, now a doctor with the World Health Organization, is currently working in the famine-stricken African nation of Malawi. Aldis, who practiced at Sylva Medical Center for 17 years, left his patients here 10 years ago to join the World Health Organization, the Geneva-based global medical agency affiliated with the United Nations. Currently in the midst of what he termed a "food crisis" in Malawi, Aldis has also been stationed in Nigeria, Bangladesh, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe. Most recently he was at the WHO regional headquarters, which oversees operations for 46 countries in Africa. Though he traveled extensively, Aldis said that job had "too much administration," and he's now a WHO country representative.

In addition to famine, Dr. Aldis is currently dealing with an outbreak of bubonic plague on the Malawi/Mozambique border and having a difficult time getting current medical information distributed between governments in countries whose people speak different languages.

But that's a big part of the WHO's job, Aldis said. By being viewed as non-political, WHO staffers can talk across country borders and even across battle lines as was the case when he was in Sierra Leone. And the chances of WHO doctors in Africa finding themselves in a war zone are relatively high with 22 African nations now embroiled in some form of conflict, with the results often catastrophic. Such strife adds some 2.5 million deaths to the continent's already high mortality rate, Aldis said.

Despite his 17-year tenure in Sylva, Dr. Aldis was not a stranger to international healing when he joined the WHO a decade ago. He had worked in Bangladesh before joining the physicians at Sylva Medical. Already affiliated with WHO, Aldis got calls while he was practicing here and would go "on assignment" two or three times a year, he said.

The biggest adjustment was not the conditions he faced as a doctor treating the sick and injured in an emerging nation but the loss of patients he had taken care of for years.

"You build relationships and an understanding of people," Aldis said. "Disengaging was hard."

Leaving his patients behind when he left was "rough," Aldis said.

"I was ready for the experience of Africa," Aldis said. "What surprised me was what I lost."

To "keep in touch," Aldis said he works with medical students, and he gets back to Sylva a few times each year.

"We're still in the phone book," he said.

Back to Archive: 09/05/02.