Switching projects

As many of you may know for the past three weeks I have been working on a seasonal influenza effectiveness study in the Kisumu area. We were vaccinating children ages 6 months to 10 years and then looking at the rates of respiratory illness over the next three years. Well this has been going ok. I was given some work but one of my colleagues was a bit reluctant to hand over any of her responsibilities as the primary investigator on the project had requested. So basically I was making copies and observing the field. Its a long story and not one I want to get into here. Not terribly exciting. Just this week though another investigator on the projected came and visited the sites with me. She noticed that I really don't have a job to do and suggested we look into doing something else. The team has been wanting to start influenza surveillance at two of the vaccine test sites for some time now but it really hasn't gotten off the ground really because they haven't had anyone to spear head it. So now that's me! I'll be coordinating the seasonal influenza surveillance at Ong'ielo and Mahaya dispensaries hopefully starting sometime this upcoming week. I'm really excited because its a lot more responsibility and its my own project. Right now I'm currently working out the logistics and confirming with the staff. Last week I was able to observe at Lwak where they already do influenza surveillance. It gave me a good idea of what to expect and how we want to run things. Pictures to come of the test sites!