The Work: An Update

I realize that I don't write a lot about my work on this blog.  Its not because I don't love what I do but because it has become the everyday for me.  I get up, go to work and complete whatever projects/tasks I have laid out for myself.  But since I know this blog will become a sort of diary of our time here in Kenya, I feel I better give an update on my project.

I am currently coordinating an encephalitis surveillance study based in Siaya District Hospital in Siaya, Kenya.    We enroll all patients over the age of 6 weeks that exhibit a certain set of encephalitis-like symptoms.  From there we collect cerebral spinal fluid and blood to test for pathogens that may be making the patient sick.  Over the course of the patient's hospital stay, we collect more blood samples and monitor their overall progress.  We finally ask the patients to return to the hospital a month after their discharge for a follow-up visit to check their overall health and take yet another blood sample.

The main focus of this project is to see what is causing encephalitis in western Kenya.  Currently there isn't a lot of research out there on the subject and a lot of the hospitals in the area aren't even doing spinal taps on their patients!

The last six months of the project has had their ups and downs but I am happy to say things have been running smoothly as of late.  Some of our accomplishments in the last 6 months include:
1. Teaching medical students and interns the proper way to perform a spinal tap even with limited resources and supplies
2. Making spinal taps available to current MOH doctors.  They love that we do this service now and regularly request them for their patients!
3. Diagnosis our patients and being able to correctly administer the right antibiotics.  There's a lot of drug resistance here and finding out what is causing the infection goes a long way in helping treat it.
4. Changing the negative perceptions of spinal taps in the hospital and community
5. Successfully enrolling 85 patients and only have one person tell us no

We're also looking forward to expanding to Mbagathi District Hospital in Nairobi.  This urban site will give us some insight as to if there is any differences between encephalitis in the rural and urban areas.  Next week I will be meeting with key officers at the hospital to get some insight as to the best way to implement our project there.

So there it is, a short update on my project thus far.  Its been great working with CDC this past year and I am looking forward to finishing out the year with the group.  I'm hoping in my last six months here I can see the roll out of the new study site, the implementation of the new laboratory testing cards and the hiring of new study personnel.  But as all things in Kenya, these take time.  We'll see if 6 months is enough! :)