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Panthou village, Aweil South county, Northern Bahr el Ghazal state, South Sudan on October 14, 2015. Thirty-two year old Arek Nuoi, mother of four, is carried by her family members to a hospital bed at Panthou Primary Health Care Center, where she will receive urgent treatment for acute malaria. She arrived unconscious, transported in a chair her family had tied to the seat of a bicycle, which they pushed for one and a half hours from their home village of Maper. She had first shown signs of illness the previous night, complaining of headache and bodily pains. In the morning, she began to vomit and fainted. The health care center at Panthou is currently the only place where patients might be able to receive free treatment and medicine for malaria in the remote rural county of Aweil South. The center has only two staffs – both medical assistants – qualified to diagnose and treat patients, yet was treating approximately 150 malaria patients per day. In October 2015, the center had just received a supply of ACT oral medication for malaria, which they had been out of stock for two months. With the high number of patients, this new supply would be depleted in a week or two. The center also had a low stock of quinine, which they reserved for serious cases. There were no RDTs (rapid detection tests) in stock, so diagnosis could only be done clinically based on symptoms observed. (Photo by Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi)
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