KILLING FIELDS page 1
covered top to bottom with
mosquito netting.
Goma itself is "a dusty town
with modern buildings and con-
crete everywhere," Dr. Zingeser
says. 'There also are roundabouts
(traffic circles) every place you
look; I guess it saves them the
trouble of putting up traffic
lights."
Flanking the city is a volcano
"which was constantly threaten-
ing to erupt. At night, you could
see the silhouette of a mountain
and a ring of bright color that al-
ternately dimmed and bright-
ened."
The problems in Zaire started
when Rwandan factions, believ-
ing they would be slaughtered if
they did not leave their home-
land, poured into nearby Goma
in mid-July.
A small town built on volcanic
rock, Goma has a tiny sewage
system and limited access to
fresh water, an area better suit-
ed to mountain-climbers than the
urbanized men and women corn-
ing from Rwanda. It was hardly
equipped to house and provide
for such a massive influx of peo-
ple, and the cholera outbreak be-
gan less than a week after the
refugees arrived.
Dr. Zingeser awoke each day
at 5:30 a.m. (breakfast for sever-
al weeks was cheese sandwich-
es). At 6:30 the office opened, with
a staff meeting at 7:30. Soon af-
is dying and of what," Dr.
Zingeser explains.
He recalls that in one 24-hour-
period, some 8,000 persons died
of cholera, a disease in which the
body becomes completely dehy-
drated.
Seeing children suffer and die
was the most difficult aspect of
his stay in Goma.
`There was an Israeli hospital
(a temporary facility to help the
refugees)," he says. On Friday,
everyone Jewish was invited for
Shabbat dinner. Dr. Zingeser
went each Friday — but as a
guest, without his pad and pen,
without the protective armor of
being a physician with a job to do.
"They had given the children
stuffed dolls, and I came in one
time and saw all these malnour-
ished kids sleeping, the dolls
wrapped in their arms. It was
just too much."
Most of his time — 12 hours
a day, minimum — was spent
working. He established policies
on which medications to use and
how to help the patients.
Today, Dr. Zingeser believes
the cholera epidemic is under
control. The refugees have
medicine and clean water; pub-
lic toilets are available. An out-
break of dysentery (which brings
bloody diarrhea) followed the
cholera, but Dr. Zingeser says
that, too, is waning.
Yet Dr. Zingeser, who spent
It's not every day that you're written about in The Jewish News. Just
every week. And each day throughout the week you read about your
community, neighborhood and synagogue. You find out about money-
saving sales, new store openings, great places to eat and exciting
entertainment. You discover jobs, new homes to buy, the Amazing
Marketplace, and where to go if you're single. You learn about local
sports and Jewish life, around the world and down the street. So if you're
not subscribing, you're missing what we're all about...YOU! Worth writing
about. Worth reading about.
Dr. Richard Hodes of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee's medical
team with Rwandan refugees in Zaire.
THE JEWISH NEWS
Save 40% off the newsstand price. Receive 52 issues plus six issues of Style magazine for only $39.00 ($54 out-of-state).
THE DE TRO T J EWISH NEWS
ADDITIONAL SAVINGS: TWO YEAR SUBSCRIPTION FOR $7200.
Yes, I'd Ike my own
❑ Please bill me.
year subscription to The Jewish News.
❑ I'd like to send a
year subscription as a gift to:
❑ Payment enclosed.
Name
My Name
Address
My Address
City
City
State
Zip
Phone
Phone
New subscribers only
Gift Card Message
T Phleeasj e wsesnhd Naellwpsaypmeontoaxlo276w7 itsh othutish &oludpoioni t4o8:
037-9966. Allow 2-3 weeks for delivery
'.' aa For fader service call 810-354-6620 and charge it to your Visa
or MasterCard between the hours of 8:30 an and 5:00 pm
AD 194
ter, Dr. Zingeser went out into
the field.
It was a gruesome scene.
Corpses on every inch of land.
Because no toilet facilities were
available, feces could be seen ev-
erywhere — induding where fam-
ilies ate and children played. And
there was no fresh water, result-
ing in the cholera epidemic.
Determining mortality rates,
one of Dr. Zingeser's primary re-
sponsibilities, is not a job for the
faint of heart. Estimates of the
number dying were based on
corpses collected at the end of the
day.
The figures were necessary to
determine how to control the dis-
ease. "To be able to allocate re-
sources, we need to find out who
five weeks in Zaire, says it's un-
likely Goma soon will be tranquil.
"Goma is like a city of 1 million
and every place is a bad neigh-
borhood," he explains. "It's
spooky."
The camps are home not only
to innocent refugees but to sol-
diers-in-training, well-armed
men preparing to enter Rwanda
and fight. 'There are people there
who had just finished chopping
up their neighbors," he says.
Dr. Zingeser returned to the
United States this month and is
staying with his parents as he
and his wife, Nancy, and son,
Eero, await the birth of a new
baby. His next position will be
determined in conjunction with
the CDC.
❑