Everyday grows upon the day before in terms of my anticipation. Today, one of my foreign mentors and a doctor at the hospital I worked at in 2004 gave a presentation that further excited me. His talk was primarily about the sexual behavior of HIV infected individuals in Ghana and served as a fond reminder of my days at St. Markus hospital. It's really hard to believe that here it is 2006 and I'm going to Ghana for the second time. My tasks this year are varied but mostly deal with patients at St.Markus hospital and aflatoxin research at the Kumasi Center for Collaborative Research, KCCR .
The first project at St. Markus is a continuation of the previous years work on HIV immune status and the interaction with Aflatoxin, a fungal toxin found on maize,rice,millet,peanuts and other grains eaten by Ghanaians, and West Africans in general. My former presentation given in 2004 shows a little more background about the interaction and what problems it causes in Ghanaians, especially those who are HIV infected. Basically, Aflatoxin is toxic to the liver which can cause other immune response problems which when coupled with HIV, the immune system is devastated. My professor has been collecting data for the last 4 years and we are now ready to compare HIV negative Ghanaians with high levels of Aflatoxin in their blood with those who are HIV infected, in order to really gage the effect on immune function.
The second project inolves Aflatoxin as well,however on a family scale. This project examines family consumption of Aflatoxin and relates that to the number of liver -related deaths in 8 of the 10 regions of Ghana. In 2004, I also supervised the collection of grains,urine, and dietary information from over 5,000 households in Ghana.The bulk of these samples have been processed to determine the level of Aflatoxin consummed by an average household. The final samples I will process at KCCR, presumably on days when I am not working at St. Markus. Whew!, Even typing that makes me tired!
It will be a lot of work, not to mention I meet with my professor next week and I think she has some other project brewing. I told her of my plans to go to Mali and Burkina Faso after work.........BTW did I mention a sistas trying to trekkk all up in Mali and Burkina??? I may have failed to mention that ,but nevertheless, my prof hinted that I should hurry and return back to the US with the samples I collect........I feel as though some bribing may be in the works............I must have at least 4 weeks to spread myself.....plaster myself all over somewhere in West Africa....all that work could not all be done with no vacation, yes? Can't be practicing my French for nothing, hmmff.. Next week should hold the key to my post-clinic hours bohemianness! Pray for me...
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