Jos, the haven

I am learning an incredible amount in my short time here, and have been adjusting to the simple life provided for me. Last Sunday, I traveled to a small village outside of the busy city of Jos to participate in an HIV/AIDS awareness outreach that FA puts together. Along with the usual FA support group members, Dr. and Mrs. Blattner also joined us in this village’s church. The service was very entertaining, consisting mostly of singing and dancing. Nyazi, a support group member, translated the service and songs to me from Hausa (one of the predominant languages spoken, especially in northern Nigeria) to English. After their service, FA members put on a skit about HIV awareness and gave their personal experiences with HIV and FA. Dr. Blattner, one of the world’s experts on HIV and head of the Human Institute of Virology in Abuja, answered questions that village members had about HIV. A lot of interesting questions arose, including transmission questions and vaccine/cure/prophylactic treatment questions. Dr. Blattner answered these questions very well and compared HIV to diseases and conditions they understood, such as malaria and hypertension. After the service, the village invited us to lunch where we had delicious spicy rice and mineral (soda).

Throughout the week, I had the opportunity to visit the many areas that FA runs. There is a skills acquisition program that includes the sewing school, knitting school, and computer school. Probably the most outgoing group of students lies within the sewing school, but everyone is very welcoming. I am having many things made by the ladies at the sewing school, including a traditional Nigerian blouse and skirt. I picked out my fabric the other day at the market with Florence, one of the sewing school teachers. Often, the ladies bring their children. Jennifer is my favorite.

The lab is going through a transitional phase at the moment since the fire destroyed most of their equipment. They hope to move the lab from the sewing school to the new clinic by next week. I spent a day in the lab learning how things work around there, and I learned a lot from the staff, particularly Rotimi. He has been at FA for a few years and is very helpful.

I've also gotten the chance to check out pre and post test counseling, a very intense place to work. This is where the patients get told that they either tested positive or negative for HIV. Probably over 50% of those who come in for an HIV test are positive.

This past week I have been getting used to the way of life in Jos and developing my project. I expressed my interests with Dr. Chris, and he assigned me to Dr. Chukwuma, or Dr. Chuks for short. Dr. Chuks is an amazing physician who heads Team E at FA. The patients under PEPfAR are all separated into different teams. There are about 7 teams that consist of a doctor, nurse, counselor, treatment support specialist (who is always HIV positive), and an adherence counselor. The first 6 teams all deal with naive patients. This means that the patients have never been exposed to ARVs, and are easier to treat. The last team, Team E, deals with all the patients who are a bit more difficult to treat for a variety of reasons, that includes failing first line therapy. Dr. Chuks heads Team E and is very good at what he does. I shadowed him the first day, and saw a lot of pathology that, before now, I have only been exposed to through text books and pictures. The study I am designing and conducting with the guidance of Dr. Chuks (who is also head of research at FA) consists of determining the hepatitis B/C and HIV co-infection prevalence of patients in Team E and comparing this prevalence to one of the naive teams' co-infection prevalence. I hope to make recommendations based on the data we will collect in these next two months that can impact FA's screening methods and drug treatment regimen for co-infected patients, since certain ARVs are more toxic to the liver with HBV/HCV co-infection than HIV mono-infection. Also, this study can provide more insight to the patient constituency of Team E. We'll see what happens!


Switching gears, I went to Jos' museum yesterday, which basically consists of shops that sell local artwork and crafts. I plan on buying most of my gifts here. They are magnificent. There is also a zoo next to it, but we did not get a chance to visit just yet. Although this area is in the center of Jos, it seems like it's on the outskirts; very quiet and peaceful. This is a certain contrast to the loud and polluted streets that comprise the rest of the city. I felt like I was in an Indiana Jones movie with all the huts around.

After the museum, we headed out to the orphanage which is run by the Plateau State government. Adoption is rare in Nigeria, since the phrase "it takes a village to raise a child" is taken very seriously here. International adoptions are non-existent and culturally taboo. There are about ten children at the orphanage now. At times, only one person will look over all these children. They are all very cute and loving. I held Gloria most of the time, who I hear is a bully. She wasn't acting up around me.




In other news, I am learning how to play guitar. I am pretty bad at it. Ryan was teaching me until he left for Germany with his wife. Now I will probably turn to Dr. Prince to teach me for the rest of the summer. I am also convincing Dr. Prince and Dr. Chuks to apply for an MPH at Berkeley!