Uganda

1. Challenge yourself to get the things you want out of life – Global Health Alumni Interview with Angela Dao (WCAS 2012)

   January 15, 2013 by Janka Pieper

   Angela Dao (WCAS 2012)
   Major: Biology, Global Health
   Current Location: Dakar Senegal

   Hello hello! I’m Angela, a recent 2012 graduate from NU, studying Biology and Global Health. Currently, I’m working as a Program Coordinator for HIV/TB activities at the regional level for the Millennium Village Project, www.millenniumvillages.org. Based in Dakar, Senegal, there are a total of five Millenium Village sites that I work with in West and Central Africa.

    

   

   View of Dakar from the north on Mamelle Lighthouse.

   What is the Millenium Village Project?

   Millenium Village Project is an effort to end extreme poverty by supporting those in low resource areas, in order to lift themselves above the poverty line. Our approach is not to focus on just one aspect, but to improve all areas of development, outlined by the Millennium Development Goals, simultaneously. Although this may seem like a daunting task, it is a necessary one, as each sector directly affects the rest. Improving child mortality does not end at improving health care, but also food sustainability, sanitation, and infrastructure. This in turns requires education and business entrepreneurship by the people themselves. All aspects are integrated and must be considered in order to make a lasting impact from a community to global scale.

   How did you find the position and what was the application process like?

   I found this position while scouring the web for job postings. A good resource and where I found this NGO is www.eldis.org. It has a range of areas, locations and levels, yet all are geared more or less towards development work. I sent a cover letter and resume, and went through a series of interviews before being offered the job.

   

   Angela and two friends in Parc de Hann with a group of baye falls, who are a sect of a Muslim brotherhood. They are sometimes referred to as Muslim rastas due to their typical deadlocks hair and colorful ragged clothes.

   How did your studies at Northwestern influence what you’re doing and where you are right now?

   At NU, Global Health studies certainly got me interested in global development work, but it was studying abroad in Uganda that really solidified my determination to work in this field. Even though I only had a BA in Biology as a recent college grad, I had the support of professors both at NU and in Uganda to give me the confidence to put myself out there for what I was actually passionate about, instead of taking the safety of a research job I wasn’t excited about. Now I’m in a country I’ve never been before,learning a language that I was novice at best, doing work that I’m actually interested in. Sure, it certainly was a leap, but I don’t regret my decision. I’ve realized if I never challenge myself to get the things I want out of life, I’ll never reach them, and probably just bore myself to death in the safety of monotony.

   What’s next? Do you already know?

   I’ll be around West Africa until the end of July before returning to the states to attend medical school in the fall. That is unless some other amazing opportunity comes up, and I’ll consider deferring a year. For those out there wondering about a gap year, my advice is to go for it. If you’re already considering it, you’re likely benefit from the time it gives you to explore not only what the world has to offer outside of school, but also yourself. I’ve learned more about who I am in these past few months  here than I did in college, because I constantly have to question and reflect my actions and their impacts. Being in unfamiliar and challenging situations only helps you discover that. Of course a gap year isn’t right for everyone. But that’s a question you need to answer yourself.

    

    

   Related posts:

   1. Every single one of my experiences abroad took me further into the world of global health – Global Health Alumni Interview with Julia Harris (2007, WCAS)
   2. Always stay focused on why we’re doing this work – Global Health Alumni Interview with Veena Sriram (WCAS 2006)
   3. Uganda, Mali, and Burkina Faso… and maybe an MPH/MSW? But that’s for the future! Global Health Alumni Interview with Jorie Larson (2010, SESP)
   4. Interview with Dr. David Serwadda, HIV/Aids Researcher and Former Dean, School of Public Health, Makerere University, Uganda
   5. Making the Transition From Academia to the Real World: Tips and Takeaways from the 2012 Civically Engaged Alumni Roundtables

   Category: Global Health Alumni Series, HIV/Aids, Senegal | Tags: business entrepreneurship, Dakar, development work, eldis.org, food sustainability, gap year, health care, Millenium Village Project, poverty, sanitation, Uganda | Comments (0)

2. Global Engagement Summer Institute Presents Development Projects from India, Bolivia, and Nicaragua

   November 23, 2010 by Shannon Mehner

   Participants from the The Global Engagement Summer Institute showed off their development projects from summer programs in India, Uganda, Bolivia and Nicaragua on campus November 19 from 4 to 6 P.M. Here GESI Program Manager Bethany Croasmun weighs in on why these programs are so pivotal for both students and communities.

   Related posts:

   1. Welcome to the NU Global Health Blog!
   2. My Summer Internship at the Obesity Institute of Children’s National Medical Center
   3. Marching for “World Toilet Day” in Rajasthan, India
   4. Research Update from Global Health Student Sarah Cohick on the Ugandan Hydrocephalus Project
   5. Researching the growing prevalence of diabetes and hypertension in rural Bolivia

   Category: Bolivia, General, India, Nicaragua, Uganda | Tags: blog, Bolivia, Nicaragua, The Global Engagement Summer Institute, Uganda | Comments (0)

3. Is Circumcision the Best Way to Prevent HIV in Africa?

   October 8, 2010 by Shannon Mehner
   

   Robert Bailey, Professor of Epidemiology, University of Illinois at Chicago

   Circumcision is the most effective and promising tool that currently exists to prevent the spread of heterosexually acquired HIV infection in developing countries, an international health consultant and medical researcher said at a global health lecture on campus Wednesday afternoon.

   The lecture, entitled “The Cutting Edge of HIV Prevention in Africa,” was the first of the Global Health Lecture Series and was cosponsored by the School of Public Health, Feinberg School of Medicine, International Program Development, and the Center for Civic Engagement.

   Though there are several prevention tools such as behavior modification programs to promote using condoms or abstaining from sex, “The only truly evidence-based strategy that we have is male circumcision,” said Robert Bailey, who is also a professor of epidemiology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, a research associate at the Field Museum and co-director of the Chicago Center for AIDS Research. Other methods of prevention either don’t have the research to showcase their efficacy or have been found unsuccessful, he said, and a vaccine will not likely be invented soon.

   But with 34 million people worldwide infected with HIV and 68 percent of those in Sub-Saharan Africa, preventive measures must be taken immediately. 5,000 men are newly infected each day in Africa, a number that health care professionals must slow down, Bailey said to the audience of 30 students, professors and community members who gathered in the Program of African Studies building on campus to hear him speak.

   “We cannot treat our way out of this epidemic,” he said. “But we must find ways to prevent it from spreading.

   One of those ways is clear, he said: The simple, cost-effective surgery of circumcision has been clinically proven to be both consistent and powerful in preventing HIV. According to evidence from three randomized controlled trials undertaken in Kisumu, Kenya, Rakai District, Uganda and Orange Farm, South Africa, uncircumcised men are two and a half times more likely to contract the HIV virus than those who are circumcised. Plus, unlike daily pills or other therapies, “once you’re circumcised you’re circumcised for the rest of your life,” he said, which makes it a one-time, inexpensive treatment (it costs about $50) that has lasting benefits.

   After seeing the striking results of the clinical trials, The World Health Organization and UNAID threw in their endorsement in 2007, recommending that male circumcision now be recognized as an important intervention to reduce the risk of HIV.

   But surgery alone is not the solution and must be performed in conjunction with other preventative treatments, Bailey cautioned. He is currently leading efforts funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the U.S. Government to implement a comprehensive package of HIV prevention services that includes male circumcision along with other tools such as couples counseling and sexually transmitted infection diagnosis in western Kenya.

   Not only is circumcision effective in preventing the spread of HIV, it is also helpful in reducing sexually transmitted infections, genital herpes, genital ulcers and cervical cancer in women, among other things. And through implementing this comprehensive circumcision program, health care professionals will also have the opportunity to reach out and educate men and women on HIV and improve the health care infrastructure in Africa.

   Bailey and his team have already performed 140,000 circumcisions in Kenya during the last 14 months and hope to perform 900,000 over the next 10 years. “My goal since 1994 when I first got into this was to show that [circumcision] is effective and implement it,” he said. “And now it’s happening.”

   For more information on the Global Health Lecture Series, please visit http://globalhealthportal.northwestern.edu/news-and-events/events-archive.

   Related posts:

   1. How to improve Reproductive Health in Africa
   2. Bringing the Lab to the Village: An Update from Northwestern’s Global Health Initiative (GHI)
   3. Female circumcision: A practice hard to change
   4. AMPATH: An Academic Partnership Changing Kenya
   5. Interview with Dr. David Serwadda, HIV/Aids Researcher and Former Dean, School of Public Health, Makerere University, Uganda

   Category: General, HIV/Aids, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda | Tags: blog, Chicago Center for AIDS Research, Circumcision, HIV/Aids, Kenya, One Book One Northwestern, South Africa, Uganda, UNAID, University of Illinois at Chicago, WHO | Comments (0)

4. Research Update from Global Health Student Sarah Cohick on the Ugandan Hydrocephalus Project

   July 21, 2010 by Guest Bloggers
   

   Sarah Cohick with a patient from a pediatric neurosurgery hospital in Mbale, Uganda

   By Student Guest Blogger:
   Sarah Cohick
   Biomedical Engineering
   McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science 2012

   Research Topic: Ugandan Hydrocephalus Project

   Research Location: Mbale, Uganda

   Research Update: I am in Mbale, Uganda with a fellow Northwestern student, Emily Laning, working at a pediatric neurosurgery hospital. Most of the patients are infants with hydrocephalus or spina bifida. The hospital sees about 900 of these cases a year. While spina bifida is a condition children are born with, the majority of the hydrocephalus cases are post-infectious, meaning they acquire the disease after birth from an infection, typically meningitis. After a recent research project’s results were analyzed, it was found that 50% of the patients who leave the hospital healthy after a successful surgery end up expiring or being in life-threatening states because of ignorance and neglect by the parents. Our project involves developing a post-operative education program for the parents so that they understand their role in the necessary care for the child; this ranges from preventing pressure sores from accumulating on the paraplegic child to simply knowing the symptoms that indicate the child should go back to the hospital.  Much neglect stems from the stigmas that the culture has put on these conditions, so the education also heavily emphasizes the value of the children and the incredibly bright futures they have. Many villages and communities will say that if the parents take the child to this hospital, CURE Children’s Hospital, they are wasting their money as the child is not a value to society or even a curse.

   After collecting data from past patient files and current patients in the ward at the hospital, Emily and I have created an assessment to determine the level of knowledge the parents have about the condition of their child, the necessary care to be given at home, and how they will respond to any negativity that may come from their families and communities with regards to their child. The results from this assessment show the social workers and nurses of the hospital where the parents may need more education. Next week we will begin administering the assessment and collecting data to edit the form. In this process, we are also trying to edit a form created by a Yale medical student who was here a few months ago. His form evaluates quality of life of returning patients, specifically those treated for hydrocephalus. These results combined with those of the assessment will help us start an outline for an education program the hospital will start for the parents. Patients are here an average of 6-10 days and the program will be a cycle of educational lectures or activities that will prepare the parents for discharge and being successful when they go home.

   As we went through the patient files to acquire information about past patients from the ten years this hospital has been running, we found that the hard copy, non-electronic system is extremely unorganized and difficult to navigate. Emily and I have looked through the forms that the different departments give to the patients and have eliminated redundant questions, added key, unasked questions, and created a plan to consolidate the forms in one central file instead of each department having their own file for the patient. We have a meeting set up for next week with the heads of each department to present our plan and hear what we should keep about the plan and what needs to be adjusted. A computerized system is something that the CUREInternational headquarters in the U.S. would love to start, but the current infrastructure will not support an immediate shift in that direction. However, Emily and I have been asked to make some sort of outlined plan of what would need to happen to make that shift and what the projected time frame would look like. Either way, having a more organized filing system will make the switch much smoother.

   Related posts:

   1. Bringing the Lab to the Village: An Update from Northwestern’s Global Health Initiative (GHI)
   2. Northwestern student researches plastic surgery needs in Kenya
   3. Flexibility and Confidence are Essential – Tips and Recommendations from Global Health Student Researchers
   4. Global Health students work to perfect technologies that aid in kangaroo mother care
   5. Reflections on Summer Global Health Research in Ho, Ghana by the GlobeMed Grow Team

   Category: Child Health, Community Health, General, Pediatrics, Uganda | Tags: blog, Hydrocephalus, Mbale, Spina Bifida, Uganda | Comments (0)

5. Bringing the Lab to the Village: An Update from Northwestern’s Global Health Initiative (GHI)

   July 8, 2010 by Janka Pieper

   

   

   GHI in Africa

   

   HIV Early Infant Diagnosis Test

   

   Uncollected Test Results

   
   
   

   As part of NU@AHEAD’s Professional Development Brown Bag series on Thursday, July 1st, Kara Palamountain, Executive Director of the Global Health Initiative (GHI) at the Kellogg School of Management, gave an update on the progress the GHI group has made since it received a $4.9 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation in 2006. GHI’s uses an interdisciplinary approach (GHI’s work spreads across various NU schools, including Kellogg, McCormick and Feinberg) to develop and distribute affordable diagnostic devices for infectious diseases to be used in low-resource countries all over the world. GHI initially receives proprietary intellectual properties donated from partner companies, such as Abbott or Invernes, while NU students and faculty then develop that IP into a usable product, test it, and in the end hope to return it to these companies for them to bring the product back to the market.

   One of GHI’s products, a handheld portable Early Infant HIV Diagnosis Test (EID), has been developed by NU students and faculty and is currently ready for clinical testing. As is the case with many low-income countries, most births do not take place at healthcare facilities and thus HIV testing of infants is rare, if not non-existent. In Uganda for example, out of the 1.2 million births each year, 100,000 infants are exposed to HIV. Out of these 100,000 infants, an estimated 20,000 babies in fact end-up with an HIV-infection, with only approximately 0.007% of all infants actually getting tested for HIV.  GHI has taken students to various low-resource countries, such as Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda for market research and market entry analysis.

   During their market analysis, GHI researchers and developers have identified several problems, which are an intrinsic part of the lack of market structure. One of the problems is the inherent shortage of healthcare workers, especially technicians. Imagine a piece of equipment breaking in a lab in Durban, South Africa. The closest technician who would be able to fix this piece of equipment lives in Nairobi, while the next closest technician lives in Germany. GHI researchers, therefore, identified the need for portable, easy-to-use, rugged and accurate devices. Another problem researchers identified lies within the distribution of lab results.  Researchers analyzed how long it takes for test results to be delivered to the patient.  In Botswana for example, this could take between 2-16 weeks, in Mozambique at least 3 months, and in Namibia 1-4 weeks. The unpredictable timeframe of delivering tests to the patients results in a backlog of unclaimed results. Most patients can’t afford to return to clinics every week to check in on their test results.  This is a major problem that needs to be solved to assure the delivery of lab results to the patient.

   While there are many obstacles in bringing a product to an underdeveloped country, there are routes for the development and distribution of diagnostics products that will benefit global health.  GHI researchers and developers are optimistic and are looking forward to see the first product clinically tested soon.  More updates to follow!

   Download a PDF to Kara Palamountain’s NU@AHEAD presentation here.

   Related posts:

   1. Global Health students work to perfect technologies that aid in kangaroo mother care
   2. Research Update from Global Health Student Sarah Cohick on the Ugandan Hydrocephalus Project
   3. Is Circumcision the Best Way to Prevent HIV in Africa?
   4. Working to improve lives: Northwestern’s Global Health Program
   5. Reporting from the 3rd Annual Clinton Global Initiative University 2010

   Category: Botswana, Commercialization, Global Health Initiative, HIV/Aids, Infectious Diseases, Mozambique, Namibia, Product Development, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda | Tags: Africa, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, blog, Botswana, GHI, Global Health Initiative, Kara Palamountain, Medical Device, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda | Comments (0)