"This is the season when the women bury the children who die of fever"(10).
The reason why this quote stood out to me so much is because thinking of the difference between what I was reading about in Nepal and us in the United States. Even though many people here have problems with health care, it is nothing compared to what they are talking about in the book. In this quote they are explaining how the children don't have the right type of medicine to live. Many of them die just from a fever. Here in the US having a fever is no big deal, so many people here get it, take a few days off work or school then go back. According to Travelers Health there are many different shots and vaccinations you need to get before you fly to Nepal. Some of the vaccinations include:measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine, varicella (chickenpox) vaccine, polio vaccine, and your yearly flu shot. Depending on who decides to go there could be even more vaccinations to get. People from the United States get those vaccinations because they don't want to get sick or even die in Nepal. But what happens to the people in Nepal who can't get those vaccinations?
Shannon, I was also interested in this topic of child death by illness. I became intrigued during the same section, where Lakshmi is describing how each season, children die of a new cause. However, I was more interested in the numbers of this topic, rather, how many children die yearly. According to Robert E Black, Saul S Morris, Jennifer Bryce of the Children and Family Wellness Shops, around 76,000 Nepalese children die each year. Also, Nepal is ranked 54th for under-five mortality rate out of all countries. These numbers are quote shocking and depressing. They also help us to realize how privileged we are to have such access to doctors and medicine. I can't even imagine what it would be like to live in a country with this high of a child mortality rate.
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