The Lost Boy
It was 2003, and
I was doing a fellowship in Infectious Disease. As part of the training, I was
in the Infectious Disease clinic one day. A patient showed up with an African
sounding name and the reason for the visit was listed as ‘Leprosy.’ I was
intrigued. I had grown up in West Africa and seen a fair amount of Leprosy
there. I went in to see the patient. He was a young man, tall and dark. He was
from the Dinka tribe of Southern Sudan. He did not speak English but had a
friend as a translator. He had successfully completed his treatment for Leprosy
and was cured. He however also had HIV but was well controlled on treatment. He
was doing well, and I completed my visit.
Later, when I was discussing the visit with my attending, he asked me if I knew anything about the ‘Lost Boys of Sudan?’ I had heard the term, but did not know the details. He then told me that the country of Sudan in East Africa had a civil war. The Second Sudanese Civil War was a conflict from 1983 to 2005 between the central Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army. It lasted for almost 22 years and is one of the longest civil wars on record. The war resulted in the independence of South Sudan six years after the war ended. Roughly two million people died. Four million people in southern Sudan were displaced at least once, normally repeatedly during the war.
Many children were orphaned or separated from their families because of the systematic attacks of genocide in the southern part of the country. Some children were able to avoid capture or death because they were away from their villages tending cattle at the cattle camps and were able to flee and hide in the dense African bush. Children were highly marginalized during this period. As a result, they began to conglomerate and organize themselves to flee the country and the war. Motivated by the loss of their parents and their need to find food and safety from the conflict, an estimated 20,000 boys from rural southern Sudan (mostly Dinka and Nuer tribes) fled to bordering Ethiopia and Kenya.
Much of the travel took place by foot in large groups with
the boys traveling in single file lines. The journey from South Sudan to the
nearest refugee camp could be up to thousands of miles. Travel ranged from a
span of weeks to two or more years. Often, the children traveled with no
possessions besides the clothes on their backs. The Boys often depended on the
charity of villages they passed for food, necessities, and treatment of the
sick. Groups of Boys were often organized and led by the oldest boy in the
group, who could be a young adult or sometimes as young as ten or twelve years
old. Some made it to refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya. The name "The Lost Boys of Sudan" was given to them by workers at the refugee camps.
In 2001, as part of a program established by the United States, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), approximately 3,800 Lost Boys were offered resettlement in the United States with assistance from charities in the United States. They are now scattered over at least 38 cities, including major metropolises such as Chicago, Dallas, Boston, Seattle, and Atlanta. Halted after September 11th for security reasons, the program restarted in 2004. As of 2006, the largest population of these refugees in the United States was in Omaha, Nebraska, which hosted about 7,000 people.
Our patient was brought over by the Lutheran Church. He did
not have the health screenings that most immigrants get prior to coming and was found to be positive for HIV infection on arrival in the United States. He
was started on treatment and was doing well but then developed an anesthetic
spot on his arm. This was biopsied and found to be leprosy. He was started on
treatment and sent to one last remaining Leprosy treatment center in Louisiana.
My attending then told me the story of trying to get him on a
Delta flight to Louisiana. He said, it was difficult to convince the airline
that this patient had active leprosy but was not a risk to the other
passengers. He had to write official letters to convince them.
Many of the lost boys had difficulty assimilating in America. A large number had post-traumatic stress disorder. In January 2011, 99.47% of South Sudanese voted to separate from the north and become an independent nation. Some American former Lost Boys now hold positions in the current government of South Sudan.
My patient had appeared to be doing well, despite his inability to speak English. I hope he continues to do well today.
