This post is probably way overdue, but it took a bit to get my bearings here at work and to fully understand my part in this gigantic malaria project. I will do my best to outline the work being done here and the role I have been given, for those enquiring minds that have been wondering what exactly I'm doing on the other side of the world.
The huge project that I am part of is called the Malawi ICEMR (International Centers of Excellence for Malaria Research) and is headed by Terrie Taylor, DO at MSU. This is one of ten regional sites throughout the world that has been granted funding from the NIAID (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) in order to address malaria as a global health concern. Specifically, the Malawi ICEMR is working to identify, understand, and evaluate interventions that target the determinants of malaria disease. The hope is to target these by tailoring specific prevention and control strategies in specific seasons and geographic locations as well as outline parameters of evaluation the impact of such strategies.
Ok, so my part in all of this. I report to Atupele Kapito-Tembo, a PhD in epidemiology, to establish an intervention database. There are many different organizations throughout the regions in our study (Chikhwawa, Thyolo, and Blantyre) but little is known about their impact on the malaria incidence, which interventions work best for each region, and what percentage of the population is being targeted ect. The first few weeks that I was here started a bit slow, working to finalize the questionnaire that I will eventually use to collect all the information that we are looking for. While waiting for revisions and comments on our work, I continued to gather information from other branches of the project in order to better understand how it works as a whole. Aside from visiting the Chikhwawa District hospital, I also rode along with another student collecting data from houses in Blantyre (they are interested in the distance a house is from agricultural or animal husbandry and its relation to malaria incidence) and helped with PCR work in the lab (tracking the life cycle of the malaria parasite in blood samples taken throughout the region). It was incredibly interesting to me to see each piece of such a large project, all working independently yet the data collected all being used to answer overarching questions.
From here on out, my primary task is to meet with the malaria coordinators in each of the three districts, compile a list of all the malaria projects within their area and the contact persons for each. Then the scavenger hunt begins to track each of these people down and administer the questionnaire we have finalized. Finally, the data that I have collected I will then add into the project server, to be used for epidemiological tracking in order to better understand how the interventions are working throughout the region. I am really excited to be working on a project with such an amazing network of students, doctors, researchers and professionals within the public health field. I'm looking forward to what the next month brings as I set about completing this project!
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| Entrance to the Chikhwawa District Hospital |
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| Malaria RDT (Rapid Diagnostic Testing) room |
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| Making notes in a patients health passport after RDT |
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| Pediatric unit check in |
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| A Clinician in the pediatric unit |
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| Courtyard in front of hospital |
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