Most of the men and women wait stoically. But the cries of the children are haunting -- sick children suffering from malaria and measles, from respiratory disease and diarrhea.
They are gathered, several hundred in all, in a rubble-littered street in the heart of Mogadishu, next to a cathedral whose desecrated hulk bears testimony to the brutality of the civil war that took Somalia to the brink of total self-destruction.
They are waiting to enter a clinic set up by a multi-national group of volunteer military and civilian medical specialists, who over the next several hours will do what they can to alleviate the misery of the ailing with drugs, injections and minor surgical procedures.
The clinic is set up inside another war-scarred building known locally as the old cinema, a theatre that once showed such American-made movies as "Rambo," a saga of combat violence that remains a local favorite.
But films are now something of the past and doctors, nurses and medical aides are more popular this day, and the Somalis watch expectantly as one of the foreign physicians -- this one, an American Navy doctor -- moves quickly through the waiting throng, deciding just who will be allowed inside.
Ron Linfesty says mothers and children are his priority. He explains how he works.
“The key is, you can see a sick baby. He's lethargic, some of them are very thin. You can see infections and these are things you go through first and you try to find them and then you take them in to be seen by the doctors early on because otherwise you start seeing everybody and a lot of people just don't need to be seen by the doctor. You're wasting resources.”
Still, it is a painful process to watch, knowing that the decisions he makes could well determine which of those in the crowd live or die.
Dr: "What's wrong with him?
Interpreter: "Chest."
Dr: "What's wrong with his chest?"
[Somali voice]
Dr: "He's coughing?"
Dr: "It sounds like he's probably got pneumonia."
Such is the incredible extent of the health crisis in Somalia that in Mogadishu alone the odds are against most infants surviving until their first birthdays. According to a newly released study, conducted jointly by Somali health workers and one of the international humanitarian groups working in Somalia, 54-point-four percent of the babies born in the capital die within their first 12 months of life. Just over a third fall prey to the debilitating effects of diarrhea. Measles, pneumonia and malnutrition are the other leading causes of infant mortality.
Shawn Campbell is the executive director of Samaritan's Purse, a private relief group working in the old cinema clinic. He says malaria is also rampant -- and he reports another growing problem: tuberculosis.
“There's a lot of TB (tuberculosis), which is one of our great concerns right now simply because to begin people on TB treatment we need to see them on a regular basis otherwise we can't start them and it's been startling to us to find how many have TB.”
This is the second time the team has set up its clinic in the old cinema and the doctors are able to conduct a limited amount of follow-up with patients they've seen before. Some were, in the words of team members, in desperate shape when first examined but are now responding to treatment and looking much better. They say that gives them a great sense of satisfaction -- even though they know so much more needs to be done, so many more need to be helped.
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