Development worker in Senegal

Question

Dear expert team,
your son is 22 years old, is studying away from home and thinks about doing a voluntary service for half a year (March to August 2017) in Senegal in Tambacounda via the organistaion "circle of friends Tambacounda Hannover".
The accomodation is very simple (no running water, earth closet, no possibility to inhale Pulmozyme, nearest simple "hospital" 370 km away, -...)
Our son needs Kreon and inhales with Pulmozyme. His health status is stable (normal weight, relatively normal lung function, no Pseuomonas, e.g. he is playing table tennis). Last year he had an allergic shock, the reason for it still remains unclear. 3 years ago he had an operation of nasal polypes. The tonsils have been removed 2 years ago after an abscess. During the last 3 years he has been treated 2-3 times sucessfully with antibiotics because of an infection.
Is it accepatable from the medical standpoint that he does this voluntary? If yes, could you give us recommendations and advice for this? If no, which arguments could we give to our son?
If you need further information, please turn to us.
We thank you for your efforts and hope to get an answer, soon.

Answer

Hello,
your question is difficult to answer. On the one hand, you ask for your adult son, of course due to worrying, that he takes a health risk, on the other hand, a judgement concerning the health risk for volunteers working there is nearly impossible to make in spite of the given information about the location and the surrondings.
It can be said on the first part, that your son should get advice at his CF center and he should take into account for his decision experience reports of people who have already worked for this organisation. It could be helpful to get directly into contact with those people. In case this project exists for a longer time already, there is for sure much information about possible risk or truly experienced illness of the peolpe working there. This is for sure also true for the necessary vaccinations, and necessary stand-by medication. There are everywhere very competent health authorities and vaccination advice centers, that can also be contacted.
A judgment of the health risk is for the above mentioned reasons nearly impossible. As I did several humanitary operations in different countries of the world, I can imagine well the wish of your son, to do such an operation. The feeling of the family, that is worrying, is unfortunately not avoidable when doing such operations.
I advice you, to support your son in getting as much information as possible about the project and the local situation. In general it does not seem impossible, that your son is doing such a voluntary service in Senegal.
I ask you to show this answer to your son, so that he can ask us also questions that we will try to answer.
Best regards,
Wolfgang Gleiber

06.02.2017