From South Wigston to South Luangwa

摘要

‘I’m suffering chifini,’ says my patient. Chifini? I’m stumped already. He’s my first patient at a small rural clinic in a remote region of Zambia and it’s the first day of a 4 month sabbatical away from my urban practice in Leicester. Is this the Nyanja word for worms? Or perhaps he’s referring to his HIV infection, or malaria, or TB. I’ve done my homework and my smartphone is loaded with apps on tropical medicine. I’m primed to administer exotic drugs like Coartem®, praziquantel, efavirenz.