Malaria Conference Cambridge

I attended the Malaria conference in Downing college, Cambridge for two days. I was absolutely pleased i did because i learnt a lot. Life of a PhD student is not so bad afterall. There were so many interesting malaria centred talks. From genetics to cell biology, from public health to genomics, from economics of diseases to epigenetics. It was truely an awesome experience.

Speakers came from different parts of the world where they carry out research and it was a lovely networking experience for me. Malaria researchers are really doing a lot to stop the burden of this awful disease and i am very honoured to be a part of them. Downing college in Cambridge is a lovely place. I felt at home being an Oxford student as the inter-collegiate system is the same. Infact the college is reminiscent of my college at Oxford. Although my love for Oxford is undying...Cambridge is also really beautiful.

I saw this lovely cathedral on my way. I have a thing for cathedrals. LOVE!

Downing College, Cambridge. Love the pillars. My bedroom was in this building. I had a snoozefest :)

Malaria Conference at the Howard building

The Downing College quad

 I and a few cool scientists went to a pub called the Eagle. This is where Watson and Crick discussed their lab results that led to the discovery of DNA (the double helix). As you can imagine i was mega excited and took pictures to show that.

The Discovery of DNA..with my reflection hehe

Where Watson and Crick sat probably with  a pint of beer

I met lovely people on this trip and i am happy to be more acquainted with fellow scientists who share the same passion and are dedicated to a very important cause. I look forward to presenting my research on the next trip :)

 xoxo

Love in the time of Sickle cell

In a lot of African countries where sickle cell is endemic, you will find that people who are carriers of sickle cell have love relationships with other carriers and these relationships generally do lead to marriage. A few decades ago, this was attested to scientific ignorance, meaning people didnt understand the scientific basis and devastating outcome of their choices. So couples who fell in love and got married ended up having children with sickle cell trait. Today, with so much scientific knowledge out there, should these issues still exist? I'd say no...but they actually still do.

I heard about a couple who are both AS and are still forging on to get married. Whilst love is a beautiful thing, i dont think people should play russian roullette with their kids lives. Scientifically, If two sickle cell carriers get married (AS and AS), the genotype of their children will be (AA, AS, AS, SS). So, there is a one in four chance of getting an SS child. But if the couple getting married is AS and SS, then 2 out of every 4 kids would have the sickle cell (SS) trait and the gentoypes will be  (AS, AS, SS, SS). All this is based on chance and frankly it doesn't happen in this order. its possible to even have more sickle cell kids than what the scientific crosses suggest.

You will find that in Nigeria, people that get married with this genetic trait fall into two categories. 1) people that have absolutely no clue what sickle cell is and 2) people that base their decisions on having faith and being a christian and believing that God will not let them have an SS child.  The former can be excused especially in rural areas of the country where health information rarely reaches communities, but the latter is inexcusable. This is similar to someone knowing they are HIV positive but decides not to take anti-retroviral drugs based on faith. One thing happens with these patients ..Death!. Whilst having faith is great, we need to be more informed and realistic about certain decisions.

I feel we need to be more responsible in making health decisions especially when it affects out future. Its unfair bringing in children into the world that will end up suffering. In a country where the health system isnt up to par and the economy is so terrible, the cost of taking care of a sickle cell child will be high especially for lower income families. The emotional and mental burden on both the child and members of the family will be very daunting.

So when next you meet someone new, dont forget to ask ''hey, whats your genotype?''.

For more informative health messages like this please visit my health website at www.africanhealthmagazine.com

Science Inspiration

Its really lovely to have women in science be a source of inspiration especially in Africa. I look forward to finding more women like this and i hope that one day i will be a source of inspiration to young women around the world :)

Professor Tebello Nyokong is a researcher of a ground-breaking cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Born in 1951 in Lesotho, this South African Professor has achieved international acclaim for her groundbreaking work in harnessing light for cancer therapy and environmental clean-ups. She is currently undertaking research on a new cancer diagnosis and treatment methodology called ‘photo-dynamic therapy’, which is intended as an alternative to chemotherapy.Through her international reputation, Professor Nyokong has contributed considerably to enhancing the reputation of South African science. Many international scientists have been drawn by her work to visit South Africa, and her laboratory has hosted postdoctoral candidates from around the world.

In 2009 Professor Nyokong won the Africa-Arab State L’Oréal-Unesco Award for Women in Science and was named by UNESCO as one of the world’s top five exceptional women scientists.In addition to working on photo-dynamic therapy, Professor Tebello Nyokong, continues to train chemists, particularly women, in the skills needed to keep South Africa at the cutting edge of scientific development.

“I work very hard and do not give up easily even when things are tough. I tend to take setbacks in my life as a way of working even harder. I actually get challenged by doing the ‘impossible.” 

xoxo

Getting Women into Science?

This Video by the EU commission was made to get more girls interested in science and pursue careers in science. The campaign is called 'Science: its a girl thing'.  After watching the video, i honestly feel the message they passed across just might piss off female scientists out there.  I also do not think it gives young girls an idea of the reality of science. It seemed more like a make up campaign or a fashion campaign of some sort. If i was a teenager i doubt this video would get my attention.The continuous use of colour pink might really piss me off as i hated pink as a child and i am very sure loads of other teens do too. I give the EU an 'A' for effort but the message passed on by this video was honestly a disaster.

The journey to Nhlangano

Photo taken on my journey back from Nhlangano.

I travelled 2.5 hours from Mbabane to the Nhlangano health centre in Swaziland for field work. Today’s field work involved interviewing HIV infected individuals for job position known as ‘expert client’. An Expert client is a HIV positive person that offers counselling, support and advice to other HIV positive people. This initiative came about because research found that it is better when HIV positive individuals get involved in HIV prevention, advice and counselling of other infected individuals.  As you can imagine it’s always easier to open up to someone that is in the same situation and probably knows the difficulties you may face.

When i got there i immediately noticed the long waiting queue just to see a doctor. There weren’t very many doctors and so people had waiting time of over two hours.  This ranged from newly born babies to older citizens. I walked around the health centre really itching to take photos but it would have been a very uncomfortable situation for these people, especially as i didn’t have their consent. Not very ethical i thought, so i put my camera away and instead went on to actually meet these people and have conversations with them.

I spoke to the HIV positive women waiting to be interviewed. They had lost so much weight and all seemed very nervous about the interview. After i shook them and introduced myself, they went on to ask me how many expert clients were going to be chosen. Unfortunately i had no clue as i was not in charge of this. I reassured them all was well and tried to make the nervousness disappear. I sincerely doubt i was successful. Majority of these women were infected through their cheating husbands. What immediately struck me was these women seemed very repressed. The Swazi society is such that women have no say or can’t make decisions.  Perhaps their HIV status also added to their suppressed nature as stigma and discrimination makes this health burden worse. They all needed this job as this was the only form of income they had a chance of getting. One of the women i spoke to was fired from her job due to her HIV status so she expressed how important getting the expert client job was to her. I wished all of them good luck and continued on to exploring the health centre.

I went to the Tuberculosis (TB) wing and immediately i was asked to wear a mask at the entrance. I introduced myself to every one i came across and i was allowed to get into the laboratory...only briefly though!  I spoke with nurses and had the privilege of filming one of the nurses. I asked her TB related questions of which she answered so well. One thing she said that got to me was the fact that most patients are not able to handle the toxic nature of the drugs so most of them end up dying. Bear in mind that those that get admitted into the TB wing are HIV positive. So taking both TB and HIV medication can’t be so easy for people whose immune system is already suppressed.

After speaking to the nurse i noticed a man sitting alone getting some sunlight. I went and sat down with him. He told me he had TB and HIV and that was the first time in weeks he could come out in the sun. My heart sank. He said he had only been on Antiretrovirals (ARVs) just a week ago, and he had no clue he was HIV positive until he started losing so much weight and falling ill. Looking at him, it was clear he had a very low CD4 count and so was very late to get on ARVs. He couldn’t breathe properly and struggled with sentences. He told me to come back in 2 weeks to take a photo of him, that hopefully he would look much better for a picture. I felt so sad. All he wanted was to recover and go back home to his two sons.  I will be going back in 3 weeks to visit him and i hope he will be much better.

This journey opened my eyes to the reality around me. One recurring them was poverty. The HIV positive women and the HIV+TB man had that in common. When i asked, it was confirmed that majority of the patients were poor...very poor.  Some didn’t even have food to eat so how were they supposed to stand the harsh effect of the drugs? I really feel all these programs that focus on uptake of drugs should also consider if people have food because without proper nutrition, the immune system (which is already compromised), will not be able to fight off infections properly.  If organisations really want to help, then they should help properly. Just three days ago a woman in Swaziland ate cow dung because she had no food to eat before taking her ARV’s.  This is the reality over here and it’s so sad. I keep saying, if international organisations are not ready to immerse themselves into communities they do research in and carry out proper needs assessment, then there is no point! I say this because at this rate, they seem to be gaining more from these poor communities than these poor communities are gaining from them.  Organisations should direct funds and energy into poverty alleviation. For example, if funds were directed to education, a whole lot will change ranging from increased job opportunities to gender empowerment.  Only when organisations start doing so will i feel people don’t have vested interest.

A tale of two cities

Photo taken in rural Swaziland. I waited for this sunset and did not regret it :)

I am in Swaziland carrying out HIV research. I have been here for a week now. Due to confidentiality reasons i cannot reveal the names of the organisations i am working with. One is an international organisation and the other is a local organisation here in Swaziland.  I’ve been in the international organisation for a week now and today, I had to come to the local organisation because I’m also collaborating with them. Now bear in mind that what these two organisations do are very useful and do contribute a lot to antiretroviral access and treatment.  The only difference is one has tons of funds and the other doesn’t.

The international organisation as you can imagine has lovely offices.  Floor to ceiling windows, comfortable office chairs, fully fitted kitchen with two fridges filled with food and drinks. The cupboards had all types of tea and biscuits, white or brown sugar, semi skimmed, skimmed or full cream milk and all types of other goodies. Now coming from England this is what i am used to. This is how the offices in England are, except this was in Swaziland.  i felt very comfortable at the office until i saw a Swazi lady cleaning the toilet and washing the dishes people used to drink tea and eat their lunches. That was where the comfort disappeared.  I see Black women doing the cleaning in England, especially on the London Underground but there was something about this particular situation that really made my heart sink. Why was i affected so much by this? Afterall this isn’t new right?  Wrong!

This is my first time of working in the African continent. I have never worked in any African country before. I felt very uncomfortable because a fellow black person was doing the cleaning for a bunch of white expatriates.  That’s what made me feel uneasy but i had to get past it especially as i couldn’t do anything about it. People might say ‘’ at least she has some form of employment’’, but i see it differently.  Doing the cleaning in a foreign land to me is different from doing the cleaning in your own land. I can’t get past the fact that its reminiscent of slavery.  I can’t, bite me!

Then i went to work in the local organisation and the reality was different. The offices were cramped, little ventilation, the kitchen was not really nice and they had no fridge.  They had an old kettle which didn’t seem to work properly. There was an empty tin of milk in the cupboard with very little tea in a tin.  Generally, the kitchen was empty.

Immediately i thought to myself, the empty kitchen cupboard and little kitchen equipment in the local organisation together with the fully fitted kitchen, stocked up fridge and cupboard with a very lush office represented the current situation of science research.  Africans are not able to do so much not only because they may not have the expertise to do so, but also because they don’t have the funds available to them.  A Lack of funds limits Africans who have particular expertise to also engage in proper research.  There is a wide gap that needs to be filled. However, expatriates have flow of funds and are able to do about anything feasible. This of course funds their extremely comfortable lifestyles in Africa which is better than what they get in Europe/America. This is one of the reasons they never leave, they hop from country to country doing research simply because they can and have the funds to back them up. What do we have?

Sitting in this local organisation writing this piece, i feel connected with the problems here in Swaziland because i have liaised with the local public health researchers who obviously know more about their issues than any foreigner would. When i was in the international office, there was definitely a disconnection and rightfully so. Expatriates can and will not understand Africa’s issues more than we Africans. A Solution can only be achieved once the problem is well understood.  With expatriate researchers not immersing themselves properly into the system can they truly have a grasp of the real issues?  The truth is a lot don’t know what it means to live in Africa because when they live here, their reality is very different from the local reality. So i ask, when will Africans truly take over their own problems?