Diary: Sierra Leone slum medic

Medics running a clinic in a coastal slum of Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, are keeping a diary for the BBC News website about their work.

In this instalment, Adama Gondor brings us the latest from Kroo Bay clinic, where nearby shanty houses have been built on a rubbish dump on the banks of the Crocodile River.

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We have a chicken pox outbreak in the community at the moment - you can see a lot of children and adults going around covered in white.

This traditional face rub helps against chicken pox

The people in Kroo Bay mostly come from the countryside and they are big believers in traditional herbal medicine.

For chicken pox they ground the leaf of a bean plant, then mix it with local alcohol and chalk and rub it on the skin. It actually works.

Unfortunately they don't allow people in the treatment to wash, which worries us in the clinic.

Of course if they came to the clinic, the treatment they would get from us would work much faster.

Chicken pox is a viral infection so we treat the symptoms, we give them calamine lotion and depending on the symptoms drugs for infections, fever or anaemia.

Market delivery

This week has been quiet in the clinic, but yesterday we had a happy and unusual story - a woman gave birth in the middle of the market.

The woman, Marianne, told us she went to the market to buy food to go home and cook and on the way she started feeling some pains in her belly.

Marianne walked to the clinic shortly after giving birth

But she ignored them until she felt something heavy and she called the woman around her to help, and just then she gave birth to the baby.

Immediately they rushed the woman and the baby to the clinic - they were both fine and very healthy.

Marianne, 45, walked to the clinic herself, just after giving birth!

The baby weighed a healthy 4. 5kg.

For a baby in Kroo Bay that is a very good weight. The average weight for a baby here is around 3.2kg.

It was so nice, we were all so happy.

The baby, who has not yet been named, was Marianne's 9th but two died shortly after birth.

Previous diary

Save the Childrenhas launched an interactive website where Kroo Bay residents answer questions about their lives. Visitors will be able to access 360-degree images of the site, and catch up with the latest news from the slum through regular "webisodes".