Every year, 16 October is World Spine Day. In recognition, our JDC-Ethiopia Spine Program partnered with the Federal and City Ministries of Health, the Addis Ababa Education Bureau, and GIV Society Ethiopia. At an event at the Haile Grand Hotel, Dr. Rick spoke about the need for spine care and showed examples of his numerous spine deformity patients.
We timed our first-ever school screening in Addis Ababa to coincide with this. For the rest of the week, we were joined by neurosurgeons, nurses, and volunteers, and we screened over 1,300 adolescents in four government schools in Addis Ababa. In each school, we organized space for students to take their shirts off privately, then they were instructed to stand and bend so their spines could be observed. Scoliometers were placed to measure angles.
We were advised by the great Phyllis D'Ambra of Los Angeles. Phyllis must hold the world's record: she has screened about 500,000 California students for scoliosis in her decades of nursing. She shared her expertise to us with early morning zoom calls and presentations. Thank you, Phyllis!
Students were eager and cooperative. Parents gave permission, and the government was excited to work with us on this.
We found a deformity rate of about 2%, with more girls than boys, as expected. Most students had AIS: adolescent idiopathic scoliosis.
We are now analyzing our data and evaluating the patients found, and plan to continue this in the future.
We thank all who participated in making this a success!
