Rainforest Doctor to Speak

Direct Relief International
Monday, 1 January 2001

A real-life "Indiana Jones" with a medical bag—that might be the best way to describe Dr. Lou Netzer, who will be recounting his adventures in the Bolivian rainforest at a free special event in Ojai. He will be speaking at the Ojai Valley Inn on Wednesday, March 7th at 7:00 p.m. Dr. Netzer practiced family medicine in Los Olivos for thirty years, and now he lives and works in a thatched-roof hut miles from nowhere between the foothills of the Andes and the headwaters of the Amazon.

Using medicines supplied by Santa Barbara's Direct Relief International, Dr. Netzer's patients are the Tacana, Chimane and Quechua Indians—descendants of the ancient Incas—who inhabit this remote and rugged corner of Bolivia. Traveling up and downriver by canoe, he practices his healing arts among some of the most isolated people in the world, who are subject to a staggering variety of exotic and debilitating tropical diseases.

Dr. Netzer estimates that as many as 50,000 people live in the scattered villages in his area, and for almost all of them he is the only source of medical treatment and education. In addition to his "house calls" in isolated jungle villages, Dr. Netzer has a small office and clinic in Rurrenabaque, a rough-and-tumble town of 7,000 people located half an hour downriver from his cabin. 250 miles north of La Paz, the town is reached by a 20-hour bus ride over what Lonely Planet calls "the most dangerous road in the world."

Dr. Netzer's presentation at the Ojai Valley Inn is open to the public and is free of charge. For more information, call Direct Relief International at (805) 964-4767.

For more information, or to contact Direct Relief International, see their website at: www.directrelief.org