viet in nigeria

this blog chronicles my internship in jos, nigeria. i will be working at faith alive, one of the few sites in nigeria that provides antiretroviral drugs to HIV positives. this free clinic was founded in 1996 by dr. chris isichei and his wife, mercy.

i am a uc berkeley graduate student in the school of public health, studying infectious diseases with an international health speciality area.

Thursday, September 14, 2006

on HIV

i am back in berkeley. i've been in the states since before the terrorist plot was "foiled" by the british. the day before, actually. my journey here was not the most pleasant, and my time in between has had its ups and downs. but i am safe, and left reflecting back on this summer, as i have been invited to an international internship class discussion to share my experience, tomorrow. shortly afterward, i will share my story with my colleagues in one of our classes.

i wish to close out this blog with an entry about the most important topic i never really discussed while i was in nigeria. it's the reason i was brought to faith alive in the first place: HIV.

nigeria is the most populous nation in africa, making its nearly 5% HIV prevalence an incredibly daunting number. combine this with its reported top ranking on the world corruption index, malnutrition, extreme poverty, lack of infrastructure, political instability, and the product is a disaster in public health. not only is HIV a burden, but many other communicable diseases, vaccine preventable diseases, and other atrocious mortalities frequent nigeria.

fifty percent of nigerians that come to faith alive for an HIV test are positive. and i am pretty sure that the other fifty percent will become positive at a later date. it's just a matter of time. HIV is ubiquitous there. all of the new friends i have made are HIV positive. their husbands and wives are positive. their children are positive. many have had only one sexual partner in their entire lives. many have had a destructive and abusive lifestyle before coming to faith alive. many are hiding their disease from their loved ones. many have been rejected from their villages. many go to church on sundays. many pray daily. many go to work. many go to school. many sing in the mornings. many want to have children. many will get married. many will get sick. many will get well. all will die. they will all die earlier than they were meant to.

at times i felt myself become desensitized to the tragedy that goes on there. the hearts that were broken when news of HIV statuses were given. at times i felt myself become desensitized to the miracle and life that goes on there. the hearts that were mended after being told that the medicine will rehabilitate their lives. it's certainly a lot to immerse yourself with. i admire the physicians and nurses that deal with this everyday for much longer than i have. and i admire dr. chris and dr. mercy for being such amazing human beings.

as for my work at faith alive, i wrote a short scientific paper that summarized my research study. i have a soft copy if anyone wishes to read it over. just comment. dr. chuks looked it over and didn't want to make any changes, but wanted to submit it for publication. i am not too sure about the publication thing, but it's nice to hear nonetheless. the results of my study showed about a 9.4% prevalence of HBV and HIV co-infection in our sample, which consisted of 106 patients. more startling, only 21.5% reported that they were even aware of HCV, while a 65.4% were aware of HBV. my recommendations included increased investment of funds and time into health education, immunization, and treatment of co-infections was necessary for the patients at faith alive.

i had an amazing learning experience designing and conducting my own research study. i enjoyed all the people, and learning more about HIV. i only hope that we will see the end of this public health crisis. we are certainly long from it.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

i am so proud of you. i know that you will go on to do so many wonderful things with your life.


David

9/18/2006 7:16 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

i read your report, it is very interesting, a well done job, you are something and i am very pround of you ( i did a good job too, ha ha !!! ). no matter you are going to do, i will support you all the way.
love.

10/28/2006 4:29 PM  

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