The Ministry of Health...and saving face

Gift, Irving, Rob, and I presented the results from our GC susceptibility study at the Ministry of Health on Tuesday. Gift introduced us, Rob talked about the principles behind the lab assays, and I gave most of the presentation. It was a small crowd (only about 15 people including us) but included the Minister for the Reproductive Health Unit and the director of HIV/AIDS. It was very well received! Our main conclusions were that the current recommended treatment for gonococcal urethritis is still effective in Malawi, and that future susceptibility studies could be done entirely in-country using relatively low-tech methods (i.e. no need to send isolates all the way to North Carolina). We left with the plan to do another study in 2 years, and to collect samples from the northern region and the southern region as well.

I also gave the same presentation on Wednesday at Tidziwe so that the clinic staff and anyone from the lab that was interested could attend. I thought it would be nice to show them the end result from the data they contributed to, whether it was collecting swabs from patients or pouring agar plates. The turnout was fairly good and it was pretty well received again, but I noticed a couple of nurses looking grumpy. The reason became clear later that evening during a discussion with an infectious disease fellow who has been working at UNC Project for the last 6 months. Apparently the first two questions any of the staff ask when a new study is being proposed are, “How is this going to help?” and “How will the results be disseminated?” Dissemination meetings usually include food. I had tried to arrange for a crate of drinks, but there was a miscommunication in the main office and I had nothing so serve. In my defense, my study was a very small study and usually the big dissemination meetings are for the larger and longer studies, however, I was worried I had a reputation for not providing benefits (there was also a small issue when we finished collecting samples in August…unknown to me the clinic team had requested funding to go to the lake for team-building and had been denied and the two became linked in their mind). So, in an attempt to improve my repurtation, I arranged to have a crate of drinks and samosa’s for their clinic meeting on Friday afternoon. In the process I got to use some of my favoriate Malawian expressions:

“Gift, I’ve organized some samosa and minerals for the clinic meeting on Friday afternoon. Since I won’t be here can you please liase with Fannie to make sure they get there?”

Organize = to make happen
Minerals = soft drinks, usually cokes and fanta
Liase = to work with

I’m on my way back to NC now and am somewhere over the Sahara. Two weeks was way too short of a trip…I felt like I was just starting to get into my groove yesterday.