Study Sites-Lwak

Ever since I started my project I have been meaning to do three posts on each of the test sites and am just now getting around to it. Lwak Hospital was originally started by a group of Catholic missionaries in Lwak. It is fairly large and the biggest of the three sites. It also has inpatient wards which both Mahaya and On'gielo lack. The hospital sees tons of patients a day most of which are IEIP study participants. IEIP is a branch of the CDC and they have a very large surveillance study on the ground here that tracks cases of malaria, diarrhea, influenza, etc. I mean its massive! Patients come in daily for routine check ups, consult with a nurse, are administered a quick survey, and then are sent for lab work. All for free! This is the best part of the system because it directly benefits the patient which doesn't always happen in research, at least directly. Since surveillance is already being done here (and very well) there is no need for me to start my project at the hospital. However, the seasonal influenza vaccine effectiveness study I was originally focused on is based here. Two nurses see approximately 50 patients a day (it can range from 30 to 100!). They confirm the patent's participation in the IEIP program, administer a survey, and then 'jab' the patient. It took me a full week to figure out that jab was the Kenyan way of saying vaccinate. The pictures above are of the clinic site. Hezron and Angiline take temperatures and get consent outside of the hospital. Patients are not allowed to be vaccinated if they currently have a temperature or have a history of temperature. This day I believe they saw a record of 98 patients at the clinic! Inside Irene and Carren administer the vaccine while Rael monitors the vaccine cool box. Without electricity at the sites the vaccines have to be carried out to the field in cooler boxes and checked frequently so that the vaccines stay within the correct temperature range. The last picture is of the little girl that was about to be vaccinated. My hope in taking her picture was to distract her while they did the jab....it didn't work.